JACO Coach, a Louisville transportation company, agreed to pay $95,000 to resolve a sexual harassment charge.

This was after an EEOC investigation found reasonable cause to believe the company had failed to act on repeated complaints about the same employee going back to 2023.

Most employers in this position don’t think they’ve done anything that bad. The EEOC often reaches a different conclusion.

Here’s what happened and what it means for your business.

Complaints that went nowhere

A female employee at JACO Coach Company said that she was sexually harassed and subjected to unwanted touching by a male coworker in early 2024.

When the EEOC looked into it, they found that the same coworker had already been complained about going back to 2023. The company had received those complaints and hadn’t done anything meaningful about them.

The EEOC found reasonable cause to believe that the company violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which is the federal law that prohibits workplace sexual harassment.

And it wasn’t just the employee who filed the charge who was affected. The finding covered a class of female coworkers too.

JACO Coach disputes the allegations but signed a conciliation agreement with the EEOC in October 2025, agreeing to pay $95,000. The EEOC announced the settlement in March 2026.

Then it took another turn. The company didn’t pay, and the EEOC sued in federal court to enforce the agreement.

So the story isn’t just about a company that mishandled complaints. It’s about an agency that follows through, even after the settlement is signed.

What went wrong

The core issue was how the company responded to the complaints.

When an employee reports harassment, that report starts a clock. From that point you have an obligation to investigate and take steps to stop what’s happening.

Receiving a complaint and letting it sit is not a neutral position. It’s a liability.

What makes this case especially worth paying attention to is that the complaints went back to 2023, well before the charge was filed.

That’s a pattern, and it’s exactly the kind of thing the EEOC focuses on when deciding whether an employer took reasonable steps to prevent and address harassment.

It’s also worth understanding how liability actually works here, because it depends on who the harasser is.

When the harasser is a coworker, like in the JACO case, the standard is negligence. You’re liable if you knew or should have known about the harassment and failed to take prompt corrective action. Complaints sitting on file with no documented response are close to a worst-case scenario under that standard.

When the harasser is a supervisor, a legal defense called Faragher-Ellerth can reduce or eliminate your liability. But it only works if you can show you had a genuine prevention policy and that you actually responded when complaints came in.

Either way, the lesson is the same. Your best protection is a real policy, a real reporting process and documented responses to every complaint.

The settlement required more than a financial payment

The dollar figure received the most attention, but it wasn’t the only outcome. As part of the agreement, the company was also required to implement a number of workplace and compliance measures designed to address the issues raised by the EEOC:

• Provide harassment training for all employees
• Put proper policies and reporting procedures in place
• Post a notice in the workplace about the settlement and employee rights
• Report back to the EEOC regularly

The agreement requires ongoing reporting and monitoring for three years. Beyond the financial settlement, it serves as a reminder that employers are expected to respond promptly and effectively when concerns are raised and to have systems in place that support a safe workplace.

Does the EEOC guidance rescission affect business owner responsibilities?

In January 2026, the EEOC rescinded its 2024 Workplace Harassment Enforcement Guidance.

EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas made it clear that withdrawing the guidance “does not give employers license to engage in unlawful harassment,” and that the laws against discrimination, harassment and retaliation haven’t gone anywhere.

The JACO Coach case is a useful reminder of what that looks like in practice. The guidance changing doesn’t change your obligations, and it clearly hasn’t changed the EEOC’s willingness to enforce them.

What you can take away from this

When a complaint comes in, investigate it and document the steps you took. A complaint with no documented response is one of the most damaging things you can have on file if a charge is ever filed against you.

If the same person has been complained about more than once, take that seriously. Repeated complaints about the same employee that go unaddressed are a red flag for the EEOC.

Make sure that your employees actually know how to report harassment and that they feel comfortable doing it.

Train your managers. What a manager does in the first day or two after a complaint is reported can make or break how the whole situation plays out.

Not sure where you stand?

If you’ve had a complaint recently and you’re not certain that it was handled properly, or if you just don’t have proper policies and training in place yet, it’s worth getting that addressed before it becomes a bigger problem.

Reach out if you’d like to talk it through.