Edison Costco Worker Was Sexually Harassed By Manager: Lawsuit

EDISON, NJ — An employee of the Edison Costco is suing the company, saying she was repeatedly sexually harassed by her manager and that Costco failed to act.

The woman, a Perth Amboy resident, said she enjoyed working at Costco, and was happy to come to work until a new manager was transferred into her department and began sexually harassing her.

A spokesperson for Costco did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment on the suit.

After months of "openly following and stalking her throughout the store," the manager demanded the employee share her personal cell phone number. The manager would call her "mi amore," meaning "my love" in Spanish, despite the employee asking him to stop.

"[The manager] has not even bothered trying to hide his attraction to [the employee]. When he speaks to [her], he focuses his attention on her body, openly staring and leering at her buttock and breasts, and further looks her body up and down when she walked by or is near him. [The employee] has caught [him] on many occasions leering at her, and each time, she insisted that he immediately stop this disgusting behavior," the lawsuit claims.

The employee went to senior management in March 2019 to report the manager's behavior and the lawsuit alleges that the corrective action was to just transfer him to another department.

When the stalking continued, "so much so that she could not get through a single day of work without experiencing some instance of sexual harassment," the employee went to a second manager, who also failed to act, leading the employee to involve her Union, the lawsuit said.

Still, no actions were taken against the manager until additional female employees filed complaints, the suit says.

At that point, an investigation was conducted and the manager was suspended for one week. After the suspension, he was put back into his supervisory role over the employee where the sexual harassment continued, the suit claims.

In July 2019, the employee "was stocking clothing when she heard sexual moaning and groaning noises behind her." Eventually she found the manager hiding behind a bunch of empty boxes where he had poked a hole to peer through at her, the suit says.

Filed in Middlesex County Superior Court in September, the lawsuit names Costco Wholesale Corporation, the manager, and the store's senior manager as defendants. Depositions are not set to begin until February 2020.

This is the second time in recent months a Costco employee in New Jersey has filed a harassment suit against a manager. In Dec. 2018, two female Costco employees filed suit against the Hazlet location. In that case, a manager was similarly accused of making unwanted sexual advances against female employees, and disparaging comments against women, including telling the female employee that women can't drive forklifts.