Female Employees Complain About Drunken Skinny Dipping Of NYC Executive Search Firm Officials
Women workers of CTPartners Executive Search, a leading global executive search company based in New York City, filed discrimination charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee (EEOC).
They claimed that Brian Sullivan, the chairman of the firm, and three other top male officials took off their clothes in May 2012 while drunk at a party in Sullivan's house in Florida, reports the New York Post on Wednesday.
They then "formed a rugby-like scrum and ran into the ocean." The skinny dip that happened during that "debauched night' isn't the first time that officials of CTPartners allegedly engaged in "sexual impropriety," another employee who claims to have witnessed the naked romp said.
In a statement released on Dec 8, CTPartners said it is aware of the complaint filed with the EEOC by a former worker. It said the claim lacks merit based on a comprehensive investigation undertaken by the company's chief operating officer as soon as he was informed in the earlier part of 2014 of the allegation.
The statement stressed, "CTPartners takes all allegations of discrimination very seriously."
It emphasised the firm's commitment to diversity in its employees and the promotion of "an inclusive and positive working environment." Over one-third of the company's partners are female, while 10 of 17 promotions among senior-level workers at the end of the year are women executives.
The complainant claimed profitable accounts were routinely removed from women employees and given to men workers, while higher standards are imposed on them. Another ex-employee said that its New York office received more than a dozen sexual-harassment complaints in 2012.
Besides the chairman, the New York Post article said other officials complained include Jeremy Robertson from its hedge fund practice and Vice Chairman Burke St John. Robertson allegedly wants to be called "daddy" and to spank a female employee, while St John allegedly has "boorish behavior." One complainant claimed that St John told female employees in his office on Sixth Avenue that the buildings in the area cast a shadow shaped like penises.
CTPartners is considered a top 25 recruitment company by Crain's New York Business.
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