Benton Harbor man wins $3 million wrongful termination suit against O'Reilly Auto Parts
BENTON HARBOR, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - A Benton Harbor man, wrongfully terminated for reporting sexual harassment in the workplace, was recently awarded nearly $3 million in damages.
"It's not every day you have a situation where a male employee [stands up] for a female who's being harassed and ends up being terminated," said Brian Farrar, an employment attorney.
Jeramiah Glowacki was terminated Jan. 30, 2020. He lost his job as a district manager at O'Reilly Auto Parts after reporting sexual harassment. Farrar represented Glowacki in court.
"What was so surprising to us from day one was the fact that all of these other managers knew about the sexual harassment and did nothing," Farrar said.
It took Glowacki reporting the harassment twice before action was taken. Not only did the regional manager accused of misconduct lose his job, but Glowacki did too.
"I've been through some pretty rough tough times, and I'm still here," Glowacki said.
In 2019 at a company conference in Texas, Glowacki witnessed a store manager from another state being sexually harassed by her regional manager. Glowacki reported what he witnessed to his direct supervisor and was told not to do anything. A year later, at the same conference, that same store manager reached out to Glowacki telling him the harassment hadn't stopped, even accusing the regional manager of groping another female employee when other managers were around. This time, Glowacki filed a report with human resources.
"I had been with O'Reilly for eight years. I had never gotten any write-ups, I had never gotten any letter of concerns," Glowacki said.
But after speaking out, the father of two says he was told he was a liability and then lost his job. The reason given by O'Reilly? Filing the complaint too late.
"When I wrote the statement, I honestly believed I was helping the case out so they could do their investigation, you know what I'm saying? I didn't know I was fighting for my own job," Glowacki said.
Now that he's had his day in court, winning a verdict of nearly $3 million, Glowacki says he's glad all of this is behind him and never for one second regretted doing the right thing.
CBS News Detroit reached out to O'Reilly Auto Parts and the attorney representing the company for comment. We have not heard back.
