We are proud to announce that we made new law for workers’ rights in Illinois; now there is a cause of action for age harassment throughout the state. Any County employee with valid grounds can bring an age harassment action against the County. It is probable that this case will allow this type of suit to be available for other Illinois employees.

It is now clear under Illinois law that County agencies policing discrimination and harassment in the workplace have broad discretionary authority to issue injunctive relief in remedying broken local governmental systems that fail to adequately address discrimination in their workplaces.

My client was a hero for taking on the Cook County Department of Corrections, facing continuing retaliation, never quitting her job, and prevailing.

We anticipate a further appeal to the IL Supreme Court and look forward to extending these new protections to workers across the entire state.

Read the full transcription of the article, published in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin on May 23, 2016, below:

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Monday, May 23, 2016
Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
by David Thomas

The process that protects employees at the Cook County Department of Corrections from sexual and age-related harassment is broken, a state appeals panel ruled Friday.

The 1st District Appellate Court affirmed the findings from a 2011 investigation from the Cook County Human Rights Commission into an employee’s complaints of sexual and age-related harassments.

Corrections Department employee Cynthia Walker described to the commission how she had been routinely harassed by co-worker Antonio Belk for years. When Belk became her supervisor, the frequency and the intensity of the harassment increased, even after Walker had complained to her superiors about her treatment.

The commission awarded $75,000 in damages for emotional duress to Walker and ordered the Corrections Department to undertake numerous steps, like adopting a policy barring age-related harassment and keeping a consultant on retainer.

Walker’s attorney, Randall A. Wolff of Randall A. Wolff & Associates Ltd. in Arlington Heights said in an interview that the Cook County Sheriff’s Office — which oversees the jail and challenged the commission’s finding in court — has not taken any steps to adopt the commission’s findings.

“She has been fighting this battle for years,” Wolff said. “She was treated terribly, and all of her complaints fell on deaf ears. No one came to help her. And if anything, there were elements of retaliation from the department against her — a lesser person would have quit and left town.”

Cara LeFevour Smith, chief policy officer for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, said the office is committed to fighting harassment and has been updating its policies. She indicated the office began doing this on its own, although some of the policy changes were a response to the commission’s decision in the Walker case.

“We have a menu of anti-discrimination policies that we continually work to strengthen and improve,” Smith said. “We dispute their position that we have not complied with the directives of the human rights commission.”

Smith said the sheriff’s office has not decided whether it will appeal to the state Supreme Court.

According to Wolff, both Walker and Belk work for the Corrections Department, but in different departments. Wolff indicated Walker is still dealing with unfair treatment in her new role.

Walker began working for the department in April 2004 as a computer operator and database designer. Shortly after she began working there, she met Belk, a jail supervisor who needed her help designing a database.

At a 2010 hearing before the commission, Walker testified she was 54 at the time and the harassment from Belk began shortly after they met in 2004.

The panel’s 23-page opinion details at length the five years of sexual and age-related harassment Walker suffered under Belk. This included repeated attempts to hug and kiss her, massages and repeated derogatory comments about her age, like being called older than dirt.

Walker detailed these instances in a journal she kept; the journal was admitted into evidence by the commission.

In 2006, Belk became Walker’s supervisor even after Walker directly appealed to Andrew Krok, department director asking him not to place Belk over her.

Walker testified that she told Krok at least twice about Belk’s behavior in 2007. Belk found out about Walker’s statements and threatened to knock Walker’s teeth out as well as saying he “owned this … jail.”

Krok, in his testimony, said he was aware of Walker’s problem with Belk but did not investigate further. It wasn’t until January 2008 that Krok gave Walker a copy of the department’s sexual harassment policy.

In 2007, Walker enrolled in the county’s Employee Assistance Program, which provided her with counseling. Her psychologist testified that Belk’s harassment has left Walker with post-traumatic stress disorder and panic attacks.

In 2008, Walker filed formal complaints with department’s Office of Professional Responsibility and the commission.

The commission reached its decision in December 2011, awarding damages to Walker and ordering the department to undertake other steps because “the evidence in this case reveals that any enforcement mechanism … is broken and needs to be repaired,” Justice Thomas E. Hoffman wrote, quoting from the commission’s opinion.

The sheriff’s office sought an administrative review of the commission’s decision in Cook County Circuit Court; Circuit Judge Rodolfo Garcia upheld the commission’s decision in February 2015.

One of the key arguments the sheriff’s office made on appeal was the Cook County human rights ordinance — which serves as the commission’s foundation — does not specifically grant relief for age-related harassment.

As a result, the commission overstepped its bounds in making findings and ordering relief with respect to age-related discrimination, the sheriff’s office maintained.

The panel noted the ordinance prohibits age-related discrimination if the person is over 40 years old. But the ordinance does not specifically grant claims for age-related harassment as it does for sexual harassment.

However, the justices noted that age discrimination is prohibited under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The ADEA is similar to Title VII, which prohibits other kinds of workplace discrimination as well as “protection against a hostile work environment or workplace harassment.”

The panel said age-related harassment constitutes a hostile work environment, and that federal courts have held those claims are viable under the ADEA.

“Where an employee can prove that her age was used as a basis to create such a hostile work environment, she proves unlawful discrimination under the ordinance,” Hoffman wrote. “Therefore, we conclude that a showing of a hostile work environment based upon age-related harassment constitutes discrimination within the meaning of the ordinance.”

The panel also rejected arguments that the commission’s finding of sexual harassment was against the manifest weight of evidence.

The sheriff’s office also contested the commission’s authority to impose additional requirements on it. The office already has such policies in place and complying with new ones would be too burdensome.

But the ordinance gives the commission broad authority to prescribe relief for complainants, the panel found. Hoffman also recalled the commission’s finding that the department’s policies are “broken.”

“We see no reason to disturb this finding,” Hoffman wrote. “It was undisputed that the petitioner attempted for over one year to seek help from several sources in addressing Belk’s increasingly improper and threatening conduct.”

The sheriff’s office was represented by Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Scott A. Golden; the commission was represented by Assistant State’s Attorney Jacqueline B. Carroll. They did not return requests for comment.

Walker was also represented by Ellen J. Grennier and Theresa Grant of Randall A. Wolff and Associates.

Justices Mary K. Rochford and Mathias W. Delort concurred with the opinion.

The case is Cook County Sheriff’s Office v. Cook County Commission on Human Rights, et al., 2016 IL App (1st) 150718.