Pa402-02 Unit 8 Project - Internal Memo

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Hédi Orvos

PA402-02 Employment Law

Unit: 7 - Project

Professor Gainer

December 28, 2011

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MEMORANDUM

TO: Ima Shewin

FROM: Hedi Orvos

RE: Ima Shewin case – Harassment in The Workplace

DATE: January 29, 2012

FACTS:

Ima Shewin, a 45-year old African-American woman with advanced degrees in English and journalism from the University of Chicago and who has been a senior level reporter for the last six years is interested in presenting a case of prima facie. Her employer, “The Blabber”, a newspaper in Atlanta, GA has undergone some reorganization and as a result Ms. Shewin was moved to another division in the company. Her new superior, Arthur King (senior editor) is whom she has been reporting to since the reorganization. Following said reorganization, two editors have retired. Ms. Shewin had applied for the open positions. Although, believing that she possessed all required qualifications for both positions, they were not offered to her and she was only interviewed for one.

When a junior-editor position, which Ms. Shewin had been after for several years and also possessed the required qualifications for, became available, she applied and was interviewed for the position by Mr. King. The interview took place over lunch at a restaurant, but it had not gone

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as well as Ms. Shewin had hoped, due to Mr. King’s questions regarding Ms. Shewin’s personal relationship with her boyfriend making Ms. Shewin uncomfortable. A few weeks following the

interview, the company announced that it had hired Gene whiz, an outsider of the company, one who was 26 years old, just recently earned a Master’s Degree from the University of Chicago and who worked as a reporter for a small local newspaper prior to being hired at The Blabber.

Ms. Shewin believes that a number of factors have been held against her; (1) only three women are in the upper levels of management at The Blabber,...