David M. deRubertis and Brennan S. Kahn/Martinez and Page v. Southern California Edison, et al.
RETALIATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES WHO REPORTED SEXUAL AND RACIAL HARASSMENT
Alfredo Martinez and Justin Page worked at Southern California Edison’s South Bay office. In February 2017, Page made an anonymous report to the company’s ethics hotline that a supervisor at South Bay was engaging in sexual and racial harassment and abusing his expense account. Soon after, Martinez made two separate reports that women in the South Bay office were being subjected to sexual harassment. An investigation by Edison International’s ethics department confirmed that three planning supervisors engaged in sexual harassment and/or racially inappropriate behavior, and the three supervisors were terminated. During and after the initial sexual and racial harassment investigation, Page reported additional allegations, including eventually reporting that he, too, was subjected to sexual harassment both by the male supervisors and also a female South Bay employee. Also, during and after the initial sexual and racial harassment investigation Page and others reported that the three supervisors and their “clique” were threatening and planning to retaliate against those who reported the issues in the first place. Both Martinez and Page were subjected to retaliation as a result of having the courage to speak up about the widespread harassment. Martinez was pushed out of SoCal Edison after almost 16 years of employment based on pretextual allegations of misconduct. Page alleged he was subjected to threats of violence and other acts of retaliation, which he reported but which Edison did not meaningfully address, forcing him onto a leave of absence from which he never returned. After nearly five years of litigation and an eight-week trial, a jury found both Martinez and Page were retaliated against, and that Page was also sexually harassed, awarding the largest verdict in California for any kind of case in 2022 and the largest employment-related jury verdict in U.S. history for any kind of employment case.