TAMPA, Fla. — Renovation Flooring, LLC and Payfin Enterprises, LLC, located in Miramar Beach, Florida, agreed to pay $175,000 and provide other relief to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.

The EEOC sued both companies in September 2025, alleging that the companies, which share common owners, managers and human resources staff, operated as a single employer. According to the suit, beginning in August 2023, one of the companies’ owners and CEO subjected his executive assistant and other female employees to repeated sexual comments, propositions and unwanted physical contact. The EEOC alleged that he escalated the harassment after the executive assistant rejected his advances, ultimately forcing her to resign in February 2024.

“No employee should have to endure sexual harassment to keep her job,” said EEOC Miami District Director Evangeline Hawthorne. “Employers must protect workers from harassment and ensure that rejecting sexual advances or reporting misconduct does not lead to retaliation.”

The alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sexual harassment and retaliation for complaining about it. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Renovation Flooring, LLC et al., Case No. 3:25-cv-01758-MCR-ZCB) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Pensacola Division after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

EEOC Miami District Regional Attorney Kristen Foslid said, “An effective reporting process must give employees a way to raise concerns about an owner’s conduct and have those concerns independently investigated. This decree provides compensation for the affected women and establishes independent monitoring, training and accountability to help prevent future harassment and retaliation.”

Under the four-year consent decree settling the suit, the companies will pay $150,000 to the former executive assistant and $25,000 to another female employee who was also sexually harassed.

The decree requires each company to adopt new employment policies addressing sexual harassment and retaliation in the workplace; provide annual training to owners, human resources personnel, managers and employees; post notices of employee rights; submit compliance reports to the EEOC; and retain an equal employment opportunity monitor to address harassment complaints and oversee compliance with the consent decree. Employees will also be able to report harassment directly to the monitor, and the monitor can investigate complaints and recommend corrective action.

For more information on sexual harassment, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/sexual-harassment. For more information on retaliation, please visit https://eeoc.gov/retaliation.

The Miami District Office’s jurisdiction includes Florida, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.

The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov.