The topic of BlackBerry (BB) cell phones is coming back from the dead, but not for the right reasons. Its new CEO John Giamatteo is facing a lawsuit, which was filed on April 3, from a former employee at the company who is accusing him of alleged sexual harassment and wrongful termination.
The plaintiff, who’s name is hidden in the lawsuit, alleges that Giamatteo made “romantic overtures” towards her and attempted multiple times to “bully her into being a woman that was submissive and subordinate to him.”
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She also claims that Giamatteo sabotaged her career by “obstructing her ability to do her job, taking credit for her work, and ultimately ending her career at Blackberry.”
Some of the inappropriate advances that she alleges Giamatteo made toward her include inviting her to travel with him, even though no business reason was provided. She also claims that he took her out to what she thought was a business dinner, but he allegedly treated it as a date and “attempted to woo” her. She also claimed that he was being “overly friendly” during the dinner and “tried to get close to her.”
Following Giamatteo’s alleged inappropriate behavior toward her, she reported his conduct to BlackBerry’s then-CEO John Chen and was allegedly retaliated against by Giamatteo.
She claims Giamatteo stopped inviting her to meetings and failed to treat her as an executive and instead as a “lower-level employee.” He also allegedly spread false rumors about her being a poor collaborator at the company, made “disparaging comments” about her to others and told employees he was working to get her “out” of the company.
She claims that he later admitted to making these comments about her to four people at the company.
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When Chen announced that he was stepping down from his position as CEO of BlackBerry last year in October, the board of directors at the company was eyeing Giamatteo for the position. The lawsuit claims that after the board was made aware of Giamatteo’s alleged sexual misconduct toward women at the company, it decided to do an investigation.
The board conducted interviews for the investigation and assured the plaintiff that “no retaliation would occur” for sharing her experience working with Giamatteo.
About a month after corresponding with the attorneys in the investigation, the plaintiff was informed that she was being terminated from her position due to “restructuring.” Days later, the lawsuit claims Giamatteo was offered the position of CEO at the company and president of cybersecurity.
Giamatteo’s job offer included a salary of “$700,000 with bonuses and stocks.” It included a $350,000 bonus. He was officially appointed by the board as CEO of BlackBerry on Dec. 11.
“Rather than hiring a CEO whose behavior was in alignment with its professed values, Blackberry instead fired a whistleblower who threatened to expose Blackberry’s misdeeds,” reads the lawsuit. “Blackberry then attempted to have her agree to release them from claims, including those relating to unlawful retaliation.”
Harassment and misconduct are a common issue in workplace culture. According to a recent survey from employee relations company HR Acuity, 52% of American employees have “experienced or witnessed inappropriate, unethical or illegal behaviors at work.” About 51% of the survey respondents said that bullying was the top inappropriate behavior they witnessed in the workplace, 40% said harassment and 30% said racism.
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