Employee's Lawsuit Accuses Employer of Torture
The term "waterboarding," which would have only been known to historians and military aficionados a year ago, has become one of the hottest buzzwords in politics and military discussions. And the recent news that President Bush will veto a proposed bill to effectively ban waterboarding by forcing CIA interrogators to operate under the interrogation techniques outlined in the U.S. Army Field Manual has made many wonder about the legitimacy of a technique many describe as "torture."
However, now the idea of waterboarding is cropping up in all sorts of unexpected places. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that a motivational coaching company in Provo, Utah has been sued by a former employee over allegations that a supervisor performed waterboarding on him for a training exercise.
The personal injury lawsuit alleges that the supervisor used the waterboarding technique to emphasize that the sales staff should work as hard at making a sale as the employee was working to breathe.
Waterboarding is a technique that has come under widespread scrutiny after a former government official admitted that three of the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay awaiting trial for their participation in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were subjected to waterboarding to gain intelligence information.
Waterboarding involves strapping a person to an inclined board with feet raised, then covering face and mouth with cloth or plastic and pouring water over the face to simulate the process of drowning. It has been used since the Italian inquisition in the 1500s and more recently in the Khmer Rouge prisons in Cambodia in the 1970s.
However, its use in the private sector for a training exercise is completely unprecedented. The lawsuit against Prosper, Inc. was filed in January and also includes allegations of other humiliating practices to which employees were subjected, including supervisors drawing moustaches on employees' faces, taking away chairs and beating on desks with a wooden paddle.
In the precise incident in question, the plaintiff claims that his supervisor led the sales team outside to a hill, where he asked for a volunteer (the plaintiff). The rest of the sales team held him down while the supervisor poured a gallon of water from a jug over the employee's mouth and nostrils.
While the plaintiff allegedly struggled, the co-workers were ordered to continue restraining him. After the gallon of water was used, the supervisor delivered his motivational message, exhorting the employees to work as hard at closing sales as the exercise participant had fought to breathe with water pouring into his face and nose.
The president of Prosper, Inc., Dave Ellis, claims that the lawsuit is an example of an employee making a big deal out of nothing, and that the story told in the lawsuit will not be corroborated by other company employees.
Contrary to the report in the lawsuit, Ellis the supervisor explained the exercise in detail before subjecting anyone to it, and that the employee who volunteered was not restrained with force.
Ellis points out that the exercise comes not from a torture technique, but from Socrates, who reportedly pushed a student's head underwater and told him that the student would only learn from him when he desired to learn as much as he desired to breathe while underwater.
The personal injury lawyer representing Prosper points out that the employee did not immediately file a complaint of the activity, instead waiting until after a company water skiing retreat. Prosper conducted its own investigation after the complaint was filed, during which time the supervisor was placed on leave. The investigation exonerated the supervisor, who continues to work for the company.
The lawsuit requests compensation for anxiety, depression and sleeplessness and therapy for emotional trauma, and accuses the company and supervisor of assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful termination.
