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Thursday, January 18, 2018

DC Radio: WTOP Hit With $3M Harassment Lawsuit

Rob Woodfork
A former employee of Hubbard Radio’s WTOP 103.5 FM Washington, DC has sued the station for sexual harassment, claiming that it was aware that the staffer who allegedly targeted her was “unfit and created a particular risk to women.”

The particularly graphic suit, filed Jan. 16 in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, claims that Towson, MD resident Joy Pivec began working at WTOP in January 2017 as an on-air traffic reporter. During training, she was teamed with Rob Woodfork, according to court papers obtained by InsideRadio.

Her complaint says that “immediately from the time she started this training, Pivec was subjected to a sexually hostile working environment which included “unwelcome touching, demeaning sexist comments, veiled threats to her employment if she did not acquiesce to his demands and graphic and vulgar language and references to Woodfork's anatomical features.”

Pivec alleges that the sexual harassment continued until she “was no longer able to cope,” despite reporting the behavior to the station’s Human Resources department, and in April, she quit.

She is demanding lost back pay, reinstatement, front pay, compensatory damages and compensation and benefits of employment she would have received, plus court costs, attorney fees, a jury trial—and a whopping $3 million in punitive damages.

3 comments:

  1. Should have also been reported to SAG-AFTRA since TOP is a Union Shop.

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    Replies
    1. And since that behavior starts at the TOP

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  2. Rob Woodfork, the golden rule for office conduct at WTOP is Do as I Say not as I Do. Just because your bosses have long term office flings doesn't mean you can. Took them years (and lots of profit) to reach the point where they can do whoever they like. WTOP GM Joel Oxley would deny this but like you said "what happens at TOP STAYS at TOP".

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