In Sharp v. S&S Activewear, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit tackled the difficult issue of when a generally toxic workplace becomes a hostile environment under Title VII. 42 U.S.C. Section 2000e-2(a)(1). The Ninth Circuit’s conclusion that employees’ allegations regarding playing offensive music in the workplace were sufficient to state a claim for a hostile work environment under Title VII relied on recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent, in Bostock v. Clayton County, 140 S. Ct. 1731 (2020); and Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, 523 U.S. 75 (1998).

The plaintiffs in Sharp were a group of employees (seven women and one man) of S&S Activewear. The employees complained on many occasions over a two-year period about “sexually graphic, violently misogynistic” music played through the employer’s warehouse. The music was played on commercial-strength speakers, and was so loud that it overpowered the operational noises of the business. Speakers were placed on forklifts and driven around the warehouse. The Ninth Circuit observed that the music, according to the employees’ allegations, was “impossible to escape.” S&S ignored the employees’ complaints, and took no steps to address the music, instead defending it as “motivational.”

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