Female Workers Sue Papa Murphy's for Being Recorded in the Bathroom

Four women have filed suit against Papa Murphy’s and their former boss, Jason Lassor, the owner of a franchise. Lassor’s crime? Taping his employees while they used the bathroom. The women who filed the suit suspected they were being watched for months. Finally, the found a camera in a cardboard box. They had been right all along.

In late 2012, female workers at the pizza restaurant began to feel uneasy when using the bathroom. One woman notice a cardboard box with holes in it and found it suspicious. When she searched it, however, she found nothing. She told her co-workers to be careful, but none of the women who had suspicions made a complaint, because they weren’t told that they could and because they feared that the owner would retaliate against them.

In January of 2013, one female worker noticed that mounting putty had appeared in the box with the holes in it. Two days later, after Lassor had been n the bathroom for several minutes, a worker went in and discovered the camera. The camera was turned in to the police.

Aside from the fact that being taped while using the toilet and changing for work caused the women a great deal of emotional distress, their trauma was furthered by the fact that they had to watch hours of footage to identify themselves on film. When confronted by the police, Lassor eventually admitted to putting the camera in the bathroom.

Now, the women are suing both Lassor and Papa Murphy’s for damages. Lassor has already served 120 days on home detention for “one felony count of child pornography and a misdemeanor unlawful electronic video recording charge.” This civil lawsuit aims to seek damages for the sexual harassment and discrimination the female workers felt in the workplace.

According to The Contra Costa Times, the women are claiming “negligent supervision, training and retention, along with invasion of privacy, sex discrimination, harassment and other workplace violations.” None of the women work at the franchise anymore.