Four women are suing an Anne Arundel athletic club for sexual harassment and firing three of them in retaliation for complaining, according to a lawsuit filed this week by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“There are at least four women we know of, but there are more in the works,” said Debra Lawrence, the EEOC supervisory trial attorney.

The Big Vanilla Athletic Club in Arnold and its administrative offices did not return repeated calls for comment.

Joella Hopkins, Melissa Mendez, Michelle Cabral and Dawn Wooden said co-workers and supervisors had subjected them to “repeated, unwanted, sexually offensive remarks and sexual advances” since December 2006, according to the lawsuit filed this week in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore City.

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“Even though there was one individual who did the lion’s share of the harassment, there were other folks involved as well,” Lawrence said.

The commission said the women were discriminated against on the basis of their sex and the work environment was “sexually hostile” due to offensive comments and unwanted touching.

Furthermore, all of the women except for Mendez were “terminated” when they came forward with complaints about the harassment, according to the lawsuit.

“Sexual harassment continues to be a persistent problem 44 years after the enactment of Title VII, which prohibits gender discrimination in employment,” said EEOC Regional Attorney Jacqueline McNair in a statement.

“Workers should not be subjected to this type of conduct or lose their livelihood when they complaint about it.”

Because of the incident, the women are seeking compensation for emotional pain, depression, anxiety and humiliation, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit asks that the athletic club be required to institute anti-discrimination and anti-sexual harassment policies encouraging employees to come forward and that supervisors be trained to implement and monitor those policies.

cpeirce@baltimoreexaminer.com