Crazy Shirts Agrees to Halt Employee Lie Detector Tests Through September : RETAILING

In a temporary settlement with a former employee, Tustin-based Crazy Shirts has agreed not to give its employees lie detector tests at least through September.

A recently filed class-action lawsuit accused Crazy Shirts of violating state law by requiring employees and applicants to take polygraph, or lie detector, tests.

The T-shirt manufacturer and retailer, which does business as the Mainland Co., has 17 stores scattered throughout California. They include stores in Laguna Beach, Santa Ana, Balboa Island and Long Beach.

Several attempts to reach Crazy Shirts and its attorneys for comment were unsuccessful. The company has not admitted any guilt.

But David DeFelice of San Francisco, who filed the lawsuit, claims that last April--a month after he was hired as a salesperson--he was told by company managers that he would not be promoted unless he took a lie detector test. DeFelice refused. As a result, the lawsuit contends, he was told that he would never be promoted.

Under California law, employers cannot require that workers take a lie detector test as a condition of being hired or keeping their jobs. “Employers can say it’s optional,” said Jocelyn Larkin, a lawyer for DeFelice. “But they can’t take adverse action against someone who refused to take one.”

To support his lawsuit, DeFelice has produced a Crazy Shirts memo that states: “Before hiring, all (management) positions will be required to submit to a polygraph test. . . . Please do not even hint that this is a pre-employment check.”

Larkin said that her client was not given the test before he was hired but was told that it was required before he could be promoted. DeFelice has asked for lost wages and damages for himself and others affected by the policy. He also wants an injunction to permanently stop Crazy Shirts from using lie detector tests.

For the time being, Crazy Shirts has voluntarily agreed not to give any polygraph tests through September. But the lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, is not over yet.

Brad Seligman, an attorney for DeFelice, said both sides are “exploring a possible settlement. . . . If we’re unable to resolve, we’ll go back into court.”