Harassment Victim Gets Jobless Benefits : Workplace: A state appeals board rules in favor of a secretary who quit her job with a Burbank car dealer.

A secretary who quit her job with a Burbank car dealer because a salesman sexually harassed her can get unemployment benefits, a state appeals board ruled Tuesday.

The owner of Pearson Ford did not promptly or effectively deal with the incidents, but told her she “was an attractive woman and that the incident was a two-way street,” the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board said.

The board said the salesman’s acts, which included commenting on her cleavage, asking if she was wearing underwear and grabbing her buttocks, “created an intimidating, hostile and offensive working environment.”

Christine Ackerman, now of San Diego, said the salesman repeatedly followed her to her car and asked her to go to lunch. She either refused or ignored him each time.

She said that after the salesman bumped into her and grabbed her buttocks she asked the owner to have a meeting with the salesman. He refused, but said the salesman would send her a written apology and would be disciplined.

Ackerman said she never received a written apology and that she resigned, telling the owner she was being treated like “a piece of meat.”

A worker cannot get unemployment benefits if he or she leaves a job voluntarily without good cause, but an administrative law judge granted her unemployment benefits. Pearson Ford appealed that decision to the board, which upheld her claim by a 6-0 vote.

The board decision “has established the legal principle that a claimant who has been subject to sexual harassment is not required to wait for the employer to take corrective action before quitting her or his job in order to qualify for unemployment benefits where the employer fails to take prompt and reasonable action.”