We recently posted about a restaurant that got into hot water for allegedly allowing a customer to harass its waitresses. In another case, Fred Meyer Stores Inc., a retailer based mostly in the Pacific Northwest, is facing similar allegations. Employees claim an elderly man would come to the store to sexually harass them, but management would do nothing about it.

According to a lawsuit filed in federal court by three women, the sexual harassment began in March 2009. They say an 84-year-old customer would regularly wait at the employee time clock in the Oak Grove store to harass female employees. They claimed he would grope and fondle them and make lewd comments.

Federal law requires companies to protect workers from sexual harassment - and that protection extends to customers who harass, not just fellow employees. But the women say management turned a blind eye to the incidents - and even "shushed" them when they would complain.

According to Oregon Live, the women were even told that the customer could not be banned from the store unless a company manager or loss-prevention representative witnessed the incidents. It was not until the woman contacted police that the man stopped frequenting the store. Ultimately, he was convicted of third-degree sexual assault in December 2009 and had to register as a sex offender. He died several months later.

Several other women were interviewed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about the man. They apparently discussed similar incidents dating back to 2007, but that evidence could not be used in the lawsuit against Fred Meyer Stores because of the statute of limitations.

But the three women who filed the lawsuit say they wanted to make their names known so this sort of harassment would not happen to anyone else.

Source: Oregon Live, "Fred Meyer accused of failing to protect 3 staffers from customer's harassment at Oak Grove store," Laura Gunderson, 13 July 2011