NYC Equinox trainer, 68, claims female colleague sexually harassed him for years: Lawsuit

Age is nothing but a number for a 68-year-old hardbody personal trainer on the Upper West Side — who claims a married female colleague’s nonstop sexual harassment ultimately got him canned.

Eric Houston was a top trainer at the Equinox on West 76th Street, pulling in $130,000 in 2024 and logging nearly 200 sessions in December alone despite what he contended were constant interruptions from a younger female co-worker who wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Houston, 68, alleged fellow trainer Dianna Scotece “immediately started flirting with him” when he was hired in 2019, but that when he rejected her advances she repeatedly complained to management, according to a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit.

“Just stand there and look pretty,” she told him during one demonstration in front of staff, while at other times Scotece, 51, allegedly tried to block Houston’s path in a bid to force him to make physical contact with her and tried to interfere with his client sessions, he claimed in court papers.

Scotece — whose husband also worked at the same Equinox — also griped to management that Houston refused to work with her.

At first, managers ignored her complaints, Houston said.

“He was called into the managers’ office roughly once a month. The managers would apologize, assuring him that he was doing excellent work, and to avoid Scotece as much as possible, acknowledging that she was the sole source of any complaints about him,” he said in the legal filing.

“Equinox’s inability or unwillingness to control Scotece caused Houston significant emotional trauma,” he said, noting he also had run-ins with her husband Keith Allaway, who allegedly threatened Houston on the job but was not disciplined.

Everything changed in April 2024 when a new set of bosses came in and began treating Houston, their oldest employee, differently, he claimed.

Houston — a Grammy-nominated concert pianist in his 20s and then a playwright and author — said in court papers his new supervisors “did not like the image of a then almost 70-year-old man as the gym’s most prominent trainer.”

The new management urged Houston to cut back his work, and stopped logging the number of monthly sessions each trainer achieved — a metric where Houston had excelled, he claimed.

They fired him in January after Scotece falsely claimed Houston yelled at her and blocked her path, according to the lawsuit.

“Houston believes the actual reason he was terminated was the Scotece allegation provided the excuse sought by management to rid themselves of the older trainer who had recently complained of discrimination,” he said in court papers.

“We hope this lawsuit will help to bring the reckoning that Equinox’s business practices demand, for the good of their employees,” said Houston’s attorney, Geoff Kalender. “Corporations like Equinox need to learn there are consequences for violating the rights of the workers of New York City.”