Tortilla Maker Worker Harassment Hinges on Intimate Touching (1)

Tortilla company El Milagro Inc. and a Chicago factory worker faced questioning from the Seventh Circuit Wednesday on whether alleged repeated touching of her intimate body parts and related comments made her workplace sexually hostile.

The three-judge panel also inquired which prior cases most closely resemble Alma Sanchez’s claims and if it matters under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that sexual touching occurs under or over clothing.

An issue in the case is what type of touching is severe enough on its own to violate sexual harassment law, with the court seemingly divided on where Sanchez’s evidence ...