Florida Harley Dealer Stuck With Loss in EEOC Suit Over GM Role

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s evidence supported a jury’s verdict that the owners of five Harley-Davidson dealerships in Florida discriminated based on sex by failing to promote a female general sales manager to general manager.

The ruling Wednesday by the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida—which upheld the verdict but reduced the jury’s award of $500,00 in punitive damages to $200,000—highlights that an employer’s nondiscriminatory justification for a challenged job action doesn’t pass muster under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act if it’s so subjective it leaves a worker no reasonable chance to rebut it. ...