Wireless World LLC, the former cellular phone retailer operating as Experts Choice, agreed to pay $107,916 to settle a federal sexual harassment lawsuit brought on behalf of a teenage employee who suffered repeated and escalating harassment by a sales manager while working for Elite Wireless Group, the company Wireless World later acquired.

The harassment began as ongoing unwelcome advances and requests for sex, culminating in a sexual assault at a workplace holiday party.

Despite the employee's criminal complaint and multiple reports to company managers, Elite Wireless failed to stop the harassment or discipline the manager, opting instead to transfer the victim to a distant store and eventually terminating her employment for absenteeism and tardiness.

Wireless World assumed liability for the predecessor company's failures upon acquiring it, as alleged by the EEOC.

The federal consent decree resolves the case in U.S. district court, awarding monetary relief to the impacted worker and obligating Wireless World to implement equal employment opportunity policies and trainings in compliance with Title VII, should business operations resume.

Source: https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/phone-retailer-pay-107916-eeoc-sexual-harassment-lawsuit

Commentary

In 2025, it is estimated that there are 5.5 million teenage employees ages 16 to 19 working in the United States, according to recent labor statistics.

Teen workers often fill positions in retail, leisure, hospitality, and similar sectors, industries where they are vulnerable to workplace misconduct including harassment and assault.

Employers have a heightened responsibility to provide extra care and protective measures for these young workers because teens may lack experience and knowledge about their rights, or how to safely navigate workplace challenges. Their developmental stage can also mean they are less likely to report harassment or may be more susceptible to intimidation or coercion by supervisors.

Employers can take several proactive steps to reduce the risk of harassment and assault of teen employees:

• Incorporate into your mission that workplace participants be treated equally, fairly, and respectfully, regardless of age or experience
• Establish policies, procedures, and standards that promote equality, require civility, and respect boundaries and adhere to policies, including policies that prohibit sexual harassment
• Enforce your organization's policies, procedures, and standards, including those that prohibit sexual harassment
• Encourage all workplace participants, including younger workers and teens, to report sexual harassment that they view, discover or reasonably suspect is occurring
• Avoid hiring or selecting applicants or workers with a history of sexual harassment
• When hiring require work and personal references and ask the references if the applicant has a history of sexual harassment, sexual harassment complaints, uncivil or disrespectful behavior, and/or ignoring boundaries. If the answer is yes, move onto another applicant
• Review the public social media pages of applicants to determine if they engage others in a civil and respectful manner and if they respect the boundaries of others, including peers and younger individuals
• Make certain all workplace participants, including younger workers and teens, go through an orientation program, which will include policies prohibiting discrimination and harassment
• Discipline any employee — regardless of title, status, or duties — who engages in, encourages, or promotes sexual harassment, is uncivil to workplace participants, and/or ignores boundaries of others and/or the organization
• Discipline any employee — regardless of title, status, or duties — who makes a knowingly false claim of sexual harassment
• Make certain all terminations are based on provable and documented objective factors, related to job performance, and not based on subjective, arbitrary, or illegal factors, including terminations for reporting, complaining, and/or providing testimony about sexual harassment
• Make certain that new leadership treats existing employees equally, fairly, and legally prior to hire or transfer and does not have a history of sexual harassment, sexual harassment complaints, uncivil or disrespectful behavior, and/or complaints regarding respecting boundaries of others
• Document all actions related to termination or discipline of workers, including workers accused of sexual harassment
• Require all workplace participants, including younger workers and teens, to take sexual harassment prevention training in a language they understand
• Require all workers to take diversity equality and inclusion and civility training in a language the trainee can understand
• Provide several safe and effective means for workplace participants to report sexual harassment
• Consider prohibiting sexual and/or intimate relationships between coworkers, including such relationships involving younger workers and teens
• Clearly communicate, through policies, procedures and postings, the means and process by which workplace participants can report sexual harassment
• Avoid situations in which teen employees work extended periods of time without adult supervision
• Eliminate situations where teens are working one-on-one with other teens or adults
• Make certain that parents and/or guardians are included in all important communications with minor employees, including communications regarding wrongdoing committed by, or against, them, such as harassment and/or assault
• If a minor employee is sexually assaulted, make certain to report the assault to law enforcement and to parents/guardians
• Allow for a means by which workplace participants can report sexual harassment anonymously without fear of retaliation
• Investigate all reports and reasonable suspicions of sexual harassment in a thorough, prompt, and objective manner
• Consider the use of third-party investigators for sexual harassment investigations that involve executive management, more than one complainant, charges of sexual assault or abuse or where there is a conflict of interest with investigators that are workplace participants
• Prohibit retaliation against workplace participants who report or complain about sexual harassment or who are involved in investigations regarding sexual harassment
• Provide a safe and effective means for workplace participants, who report or complain about sexual harassment or who are involved in investigations regarding sexual harassment  to report retaliation

Additional Sources: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/youth_08212025.htm