SHOREHAM, N.Y. - The former owner of a Long Island golf club was ordered to pay $34,000 to a caddie for publicly ridiculing him after he lost two matches to a woman.
The compensation was ordered Monday by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed a "sexual stereotyping" suit on Eugene Palumbo's behalf against Delalio Fairway Associates, the former owner of the Tallgrass Golf Club in Shoreham.
The EEOC said the public ridicule, which occurred in 2003, crossed the line into sexual harassment.
The agency, which enforces anti-bias statutes in the workplace, said the manager of the club posted and distributed newsletters in the club that mocked Palumbo by questioning his manhood after he lost the two matches. When Palumbo complained, he was fired.
The EEOC said Delalio Fairway took no action to stop the harassment.
An attorney for Delalio said the flyers were meant as a joke, but the EEOC said the actions crossed the line into harassment.
The suit was filed in September in Brooklyn federal court.