This is one employment lawsuit that has more twists than any others to make its way into the public domain – from gender discrimination to gang intimidation; you have to read it to believe it.
A long battle between a co-CEO and the staff of the company is having another round in court with the employees taking out a US$32.5 million suit against the big boss.
The New York Daily News reports that employees of Archie Comics’ have filed the suit against co-CEO Nancy Silberkleit stating her ‘deliberate and disturbed campaign or outrageous conduct’ has them so alarmed that an armed guard has been posted at the office and they want a court order to keep her two miles away from the office.
The suit claims that Silberkleit invited Hell’s Angels bikers to the company offices in an effort to “intimidate” them and repeatedly inquired as to where her late husband, who she took over from when he died in 2008, kept his handgun at the office. Other accusations include she stalked employees and their families.
Silberkleit told the Daily News the accusations were "cruel and mean and inaccurate”.
A gender discrimination case has also been bought against Silberkleit. She is alleged to have called them by a male anatomical term instead of their real names.
“[T]he word ‘penis’ became somewhat of a campaign slogan and her preferred method of referring to employees in lieu of their names,” their new filing said according to the Daily News.
Silberkleit’s lawyer, however, is arguing the gender discrimination lawsuit should be dropped partly because white males aren’t members of “a protected class.”
Silberkleit’s fellow CEO Jonathan Goldwater has previously tried to have her removed from the company in 2011 on claims she was “unstable”. The case was eventually settled with an agreement that Silberkleit would use a go-between to interact with staff.
However the dispute has erupted again when the go-between claimed she had become “unhinged” and Silberkleit responded with sexual harassment claims. That case is still pending.