EAST ST. LOUIS - A woman claims she was instructed to train another employee to do her job and then fired after allegedly reporting sexual harassment and discrimination.
Leanne Kelemetc filed a federal class action complaint on Nov. 17 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois against Gil Klein TV and Appliance, Inc. doing business as Kleins Brand Source, Doug Klein and Lynn Klein Iler, alleging Title VII sex discrimination, retaliation, violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and violation of Illinois Minimum Wage Law (Overtime).
According to the complaint, Kelemetc was employed by Kleins Brand Source from September 2016, until Oct. 9, 2020, as a service writer. During her employment, she alleges she suffered sexually explicit comments and discrimination from owners and managers calling her offensive names. Kelemetc claims she emailed a request for the treatment and behavior to cease in September 2020, which allegedly yielded no results. Then Kelemetc alleges the warranty website on her work computer stopped operating on Oct. 8, 2020, preventing her from doing part of her job. She claims the defendants failed to fix the issue as requested. The following day, Kelemetc was instructed to train another employee on her job and constructively discharged Plaintiff.
Kelemetc seeks judgment for unpaid overtime compensation, plus statutory remedies, treble damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, and 5% of the amount of the underpayments for each month following the date of payment during which such payments remain unpaid. Kelemetc is represented by Jill A. Silverstein SilversteinWolf LLC in St. Louis.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois case number 3:21-cv-01445-JPG