News 12 at 6:00, November 24, 2008

EVANS, Ga.---The lawsuit alleges that a manager accidentally broadcast comments about sexuality and religion over the intercom.

In that conversation, one ex-employee states that management sexually harassed her and another co-worker.

The alleged event happened back in June of 2007, when Denise Atkinson was a groomer at PETCO. She says the whole store heard a conversation that turned to her religion and her sexuality. So now, she's fighting back.

"One word can be very damaging for the rest of somebody's life," says Denise.

But it was a few words, back in June, 2007 that Denise Atkinson claims accidentally hit the intercom at this PETCO on Washington Road. Words she says are false about her sexuality and religion. "There was some information that went over the intercom that shouldn't have gone over the intercom," says Denise.

At first Denise didn't realize she had rights, a co-worker had to tell her, and now she wants to tell you. "They can't do that to you, this is not right and you have rights to go and find a lawyer and have something done about it," says Denise.

You do have rights. Rights laid out in "Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protecting individuals against employment discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race, color, national origin, and religion."

And PETCO's employee code of ethics goes even farther, stating...
"PETCO will not tolerate harassment or discrimination of any sort including harassment based on sex, age, race, color, creed, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, or veteran status." But Denise's attorney says the company did tolerate it, and didn't try to help Denise and her co-worker.

"This type of conduct is conduct that shouldn't happen. Period. It creates a work environment that's just not productive for anybody," says Augusta Attorney Jack Long.

Not productive, and can be damaging. Denise has some advice if this happens to you, report it. "You don't need to be humiliated or embarrassed or actually threatened of losing your job without being able to do something about it, its just not right," says Denise.

And while Denise had hoped to work at PETCO until she retired, she's found a new job -- and she's much happier.

News 12 did speak with the Atlanta law firm representing PETCO in this lawsuit and they said they will be filing a motion very shortly to end the case.

And cases like this happen all the time, even though you don't always hear about them. According to their website, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission saw 24,826 sex-based discrimination cases in 2007. 21,982 of those, ended with the company paying money out.
And it's big bucks, 135 million dollars.