I live in Louisiana. I previously posted about dishonest coworkers. The same coworkers who have lied repeatedly about instructions to perform their work have come up with a new tactic. I have asthma. Certain cosmetics and other chemicals can cause severe reactions. Last year a coworker who sells Avon tried to get me to smell some hand lotion she was trying to sell. I politely asked her not to put it on when she was in the same room as me. (With a tape measure, our seats at the time were 32 inches apart) She became upset and tried to prove that Avon does not sell cosmetics that can trigger an asthma attack. I got sick and missed three days of work due to inflammation of my lungs. I had to take a steroid shot and a round of oral steroids and was given yet another prescription for yet another asthma drug. I thought I was in my rights to email the other staff and request a little forebearance on their part with cosmetics. I sent an email to the other five people I work with notifying them that I have asthma and requesting they not apply cosmetics in the same room as me. I was written up and was actually verbally accused of sexual harassment because I put the male technical staff on the To: line and the female administrative staff on the CC: line of the email. I recorded the meeting in self defense. Now a manager and a coworker have taken upon themselves to "test" my asthma. Last week the new manager who I notified I have asthma marched up to my desk and pretended to have to point something out on a note he was handing me. He stood so close that his chest was touching my face and I got a faceful of his clothing detergent and his antiperspirant. (Sit in a chair and have someone stand so close that they have their ribcage touching your right cheek. It's pretty damn close.) (I have to use nonscented detergent and even a special bleach to avoid triggering an attack) I said for him to get off of me and he rubbed himself against me. I pushed him away without force and said that something he was wearing was causing me to be ill. He said he wasn't wearing any cologne and "I guess we'll have to ban soap now."
Another coworker has used hand sanitizer to harrass me. He damaged a few of our client's equipment by removing equipment from servers and workstations while they were powered on. He got in trouble for it without any action on my part but blamed me for the issue. He sat at his desk (forty inches from my desk by tape measure) and put on the hand sanitizer while I was on the phone with a client. ALL THE WAY UP HIS ARMS. Nobody I know uses hand sanitizer to the point that it wets their short shirtsleeves. He was looking at me while he did it (the entire time). The phone conversation went on for twenty minutes and I got hoarser and hoarser. I finally got done with the client and had to take three shots of my asthma inhaler to calm my lungs down. He did the same type of thing three days later, except he used the hand sanitizer eleven times in ninety minutes. He never left his desk, he didn't do anything except speak on the phone and type on his keyboard. There was no reasonable reason to apply that much hand sanitizer to his hands. I refused to work with him on any client site because of this behavior. He also wears "inexpensive" cologne that has multiple of the client company employees complaining. Today I noticed that he wasn't wearing a noticeable amount of cologne at the office until he saw me there. He left the office and came back a few minutes later surrounded by a cloud of that crap.
I have requested that either he or I be moved to a different desk. I complained to the owner, who said I have to "follow the chain of command" which includes the manager who is trying to prove I don't have asthma. I was written up for "insubordination" for sending an email to my coworkers to notify them that I have asthma.
What is my legal recourse?
Another coworker has used hand sanitizer to harrass me. He damaged a few of our client's equipment by removing equipment from servers and workstations while they were powered on. He got in trouble for it without any action on my part but blamed me for the issue. He sat at his desk (forty inches from my desk by tape measure) and put on the hand sanitizer while I was on the phone with a client. ALL THE WAY UP HIS ARMS. Nobody I know uses hand sanitizer to the point that it wets their short shirtsleeves. He was looking at me while he did it (the entire time). The phone conversation went on for twenty minutes and I got hoarser and hoarser. I finally got done with the client and had to take three shots of my asthma inhaler to calm my lungs down. He did the same type of thing three days later, except he used the hand sanitizer eleven times in ninety minutes. He never left his desk, he didn't do anything except speak on the phone and type on his keyboard. There was no reasonable reason to apply that much hand sanitizer to his hands. I refused to work with him on any client site because of this behavior. He also wears "inexpensive" cologne that has multiple of the client company employees complaining. Today I noticed that he wasn't wearing a noticeable amount of cologne at the office until he saw me there. He left the office and came back a few minutes later surrounded by a cloud of that crap.
I have requested that either he or I be moved to a different desk. I complained to the owner, who said I have to "follow the chain of command" which includes the manager who is trying to prove I don't have asthma. I was written up for "insubordination" for sending an email to my coworkers to notify them that I have asthma.
What is my legal recourse?
