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Ex-Executive Sues Omni for Being a ‘Boys Club’

October 26, 2017 Natalie Posgate

A former female executive for Omni Hotels on Wednesday filed suit against her ex-employer and its holding company for sexual harassment, unequal pay, and retaliation after she spent more than a decade trying to resolve her issues with the Dallas-based hotel chain.

The executive’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday night, comes at a time when more women are speaking up about their sexual harassment and discrimination experiences by men in their workplace – most recently the Harvey Weinstein scandal in Hollywood.

But the efforts by the plaintiff, Sarah “Alica” Lindsley, to resolve discrimination complaints against the multibillion-dollar hotel chain, which allegedly called its own company culture a “boys club,” were not inspired as a result of the Weinstein scandal.

Sarah “Alica” Lindsley (in green) with her legal team and women’s rights advocates at the Oct. 26, 2017 press conference.

At a press conference Thursday in front of the Dallas federal courthouse, where the lawsuit was filed, Lindsley said she decided to file the complaint to stand up for the fellow female colleagues in her department in addition to the unequal treatment she herself received during her 15-year career at Omni.

A single mother, Lindsley emotionally told her story of beginning her job at Omni at a Tucson resort in 2001 as a server to support her son. She spent the next 15 years working her way up the ladder – experiencing harassment and discrimination every step of the way – and was in an executive role based in Corpus Christi when she left the company last year.

“The bigger part of this is I am by far not the only woman who has experienced this,” Lindsley said at the press conference, which was also attended by Lindsley’s legal team and women’s advocacy groups. “There are many women who have small children – or they’re just single women trying to make it – and don’t feel that they can have this voice because they need the income.

“I’m hoping that through this [lawsuit], other women will… not have to go through what I went through,” she added.

Harassment and discrimination that Lindsley experienced included receiving significantly lower pay than her male predecessor in her executive position as well as men who were junior to her, being told by male colleagues she’d make more money “being a prostitute” than working at Omni, and being excluded from networking and promotion opportunities that were given to her male counterparts, her lawsuit says.

In a written statement, an Omni spokesperson said, “While we do not discuss pending litigation or any related matters, Omni Hotels & Resorts expects all associates to treat each other with dignity, courtesy, and respect. Harassment or discrimination on any basis is strictly prohibited.”

Lindsley’s lawyers said they did not yet know who Omni will retain to defend it in this lawsuit, but has hired Ogletree Deakins in the past for similar matters. Omni did not answer the Lawbook’s inquiry on this topic.

A downtown skyline photo taken from the Omni Dallas Hotel. The hotel industry has a reputation for being male-dominant.

Though it was not filed as a class-action, James Vagnini, Lindsley’s lead lawyer, said the lawsuit has the potential to evolve into one if other women wish to join. The challenge with that, however, is there are so few women “in this position, so what class is there?”

By “class,” Vagnini referred to the fact that Lindsley was the first woman in the entire hotel chain to be promoted to a director of food and beverage position at Omni, which occurred in 2011. Lindsley said only three other women have been promoted to this position since then and some have already left for similar reasons.

Lindsley filed more than a dozen internal claims with Omni’s management, human resources department and corporate headquarters regarding discrimination she and female colleagues in her department experienced, Vagnini said. When those claims went nowhere – such as when she was told by HR that she was simply working in a “boys club” culture – Lindsley ultimately filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission in 2015.

Matters only worsened for Lindsley, who fully intended to stay with the company after filing her EEOC complaint. She arrived at the hotel one day with the opened envelope of the EEOC complaint on her desk, and was “repeatedly ostracized” for 10 months, the lawsuit says. For example, after returning from an FMLA leave, the general manager drastically lowered her annual review rating and eliminated many of her accomplishments in the previous year.

“The writing was becoming very clear on the wall that she was no longer wanted,” Vagnini said. “Suddenly she goes from being the best thing ever to the worst thing ever because she filed the complaint outside the walls of Omni.”

This May, the EEOC determined Omni had paid Lindsley unequal wages in violation of Title VII and the Equal Pay Act, retaliated against her for filing her EEOC complaint and issued Lindsley a notice of right to sue. However the EEOC did not make a determination on Lindsley’s allegations of sexual harassment and being turned away from a job interview.

Lindsley’s legal team also includes Monica Hincken, who practices at Vagnini’s firm, Valli Kane & Vagnini, as well as Holt Lackey and Jay Ellwanger of Ellwanger Law, an equal rights law firm that officially formed in the past week in Austin.

Natalie Posgate

Natalie Posgate covers pro bono work, public service and diversity within the Texas legal community.

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