Former Playgirl Model Sues Current Employer for Sexual Harassment

If you make a decision to pose in a sexual oriented magazine, you should probably expect that when some people learn of this they may use it as a way to joke, tease or try to bring levity to the situation. When Daniel Sawka posed for Playgirl magazine in 1995, he may not have thought that it would have followed him to his professional career 18 years later, but the Internet has a way of remembering.

Sawka’s career in male nudity didn’t survive past his stint as a lumberjack in Playgirl, but 13 years later as a professional manager at ADP he shortly discovered that his past has crept into his new career. When Sawka’s co-workers discovered the pictures the taunting started and never really stopped:

• When he was around employees would shout “Timber!”.
• Employees would constantly joke and make sexually charged comments.
• During monthly meetings jokes were made publicly about his genitals.
• Jokes were made about what homosexual men were doing while looking at his pictures.
• The lawsuit also alleges that that employees used company equipment to Google and download the explicit images.

Sawka claims that at an awards dinner a manager admitted that “everyone at the company knew about the pictures” and at two different meetings at company headquarters employees he never met “brought up the pictures and made jokes.”

Sawka alleges he was “constructively discharged” and filed suit in May of 2013 seeking damages for lost pension, personal days, back pay, bonuses and emotional distress.

Although the law protects employees from sexual harassment at the workplace, do you think employees should be excluded from those rights if they’ve willingly and purposely placed themselves in a public sexual magazine?

If you believe you are a victim of sexual harassment at work, call Emanuel Shirazi today @ (310) 400-5891