Iowa – from www.desmoinesregister.com – Five women who worked at an Indianola toy company allege in lawsuits that a co-worker and supervisor subjected them to graphic sexual comments, touching and other harassment.

The lawsuits against Manley Toy Direct and two sister companies include allegations that the men repeatedly groped women, talked openly about specific kinds of sex, and made lewd comments about 14-year-old girls.

Female workers were routinely referred to as “luscious lips,” “babe” and far more explicit names, according to one of the lawsuits. The two male employees allegedly talked about the size of their genitals and posted drawings of female breasts around the office.

The women worked at a customer-service center for Manley Toy Direct, a division of Manley Toy Ltd. of Hong Kong. The company’s Indianola office fields customer complaints about water slides, pocket motorcycles and other company products.

The lawsuits are seeking legal damages to punish the company and deter future harassment, as well as interest and attorney fees.

Jill Zwagerman, a Des Moines attorney representing the women, said the claims ranked among the most extreme she had seen in an employment law case.

“It doesn’t seem like you get a lot of cases this graphic anymore,” Zwagerman said. “People generally know you can’t say these things.”

A phone message left at the customer-service center Thursday was not returned, nor was a message sent to two corporate e-mail accounts. Victoria Herring, a lawyer for Manley Toy Direct, said she had not yet seen the lawsuit and declined to comment further.

Female workers in the office faced daily – sometimes hourly – harassment, the women allege. Their former supervisor spent work time on an Internet dating site and required female employees to “carry a full work load,” while male workers played online games, according to one of the lawsuits.

The lawsuit says a male co-worker at the time shared specific details about past sexual escapades and muttered the words “anal sex” under his breath when talking to female callers.

When one of the employees, Danielle Rennenger, confronted the men about the behavior, she allegedly was told: “Tell it to someone who cares.”

Rennenger said in an interview, “Nobody should ever feel that way – ever. That’s my biggest thing. And still, the company has nothing in their handbooks about it. It’s ridiculous.”

Another former worker, Ammee Roush, said her male co-worker often forced her to sit on his lap. On one occasion, when she called in sick to work, Roush said the former supervisor told her co-workers that she had a sexually transmitted disease.

“When I did try to complain, I was yelled at,” Roush said. “There was nobody I felt I could go to and talk to about it.”

The lawsuits — two filed Thursday in federal court and two to be filed in Warren County District Court today — allege that the company failed to stop the behavior or address their complaints. The federal lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court because the deadline to raise the claims in state court had passed.

Four of the women — Roush, Rennenger, Heather Miller and Robin Drake — were representatives who fielded customer complaints, Zwagerman said. The fifth plaintiff, Tammie Ackelson, was a supervisor. All are from Indianola.

The two men were mentioned in the lawsuit, but are not named as defendants. Zwagerman said the company fired both in late 2007, shortly after the women filed complaints with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission.

Most American workplaces have policies intended to protect employees from degrading treatment based on their gender.

Sexual harassment complaints to the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission fell 16.6 percent in the past decade, from 15,222 in fiscal 1999 to 12,696 in fiscal 2009, federal statistics show.

In Iowa, sex-discrimination complaints climbed 29 percent in the last three years, from 557 in fiscal year 2006 to 717 in fiscal 2009.