Most employers have policies in place to prevent or stop sexual harassment by supervisors and co-workers. Today, that isn’t enough. The reality is that you must also protect employees from customer or client harassment. Unless your sexual harassment policy addresses such harassment, you may find yourself facing a jury trial.
Occasionally, employees work up the nerve to complain about sexual harassment only to get cold feet about pressing their complaints or naming names. What should you do if an employee complains, but then just asks for a transfer instead of identifying the alleged harasser? That’s the situation one employer recently faced.
Many sexual harassment complaints turn out to be much ado about very little. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can close the case and forget about the whole thing. That can be especially dangerous if the person about whom the complaint was made is a supervisor who still has authority over the employee who complained. Here’s how to handle the aftermath of a closed harassment complaint:
Occasionally, employees work up the nerve to complain about sexual harassment only to get cold feet about pressing their complaints. What should you do if an employee complains, but then just asks for a transfer instead of identifying the alleged harasser? That’s the situation one employer recently faced.
The U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t decided any big sexual harassment cases for several years. That doesn’t mean the problem has disappeared or that employers should slack off in their efforts to prevent and fix sexual harassment. Instead, review your training program to make sure sexual harassment gets the attention it deserves. Then be sure to investigate any harassment complaints you receive.
Here’s a bit of good news: Employees who believe that their co-workers have discriminated against them or harassed them on account of their protected characteristics can’t sue under both Title VII and state tort laws. That takes away one potentially expensive avenue for recovering damages.
When an alleged sexual harasser is a supervisor, employers aren’t liable if there was no tangible employment action taken—the harassed employee wasn’t fired, demoted or otherwise punished—and the harassment was stopped promptly. But it doesn’t always work out so neatly in larger organizations.
Q. An employee of ours has filed several sexual harassment complaints. But when we have investigated, they have turned out to be false. Can we do something about her?
Lissa Hannan, a Verizon employee in the Pittsburgh area, filed a complaint alleging a male contractor sexually harassed her. The company essentially put her on hold and then hung up. Ten days after she filed her complaint, Verizon fired Hannan. The company ended up agreeing to pay her $37,000 to settle the lawsuit.
Some people have more trouble than others managing personal relationships. When such a person has a supervisory role, the result can be disastrous. Don’t fear discharging a lousy manager based on what you observe or find out following an investigation.
Murphy Ford of Chester will pay $244,000 to settle sexual harassment complaints from three female employees. According to a complaint filed with the EEOC, the women complained to management about the dealership’s service manager who used to grab his private parts and make sexually explicit comments.
A Clemmons Burger King is the latest fish caught in the EEOC’s teen sexual harassment net. Burger King will pay $85,000 to a teenage employee who was subject to unwanted touching, sexual advances and requests for sexual favors from the store’s general manager.
Graffiti usually appears where the author is least likely to be caught creating it. Popular workplace spots are lavatories and work site portable toilets. And offensive graffiti can create an almost instantly hostile work environment. That’s why HR should remind supervisors to immediately report any graffiti—no matter where they find it.
Q.What kinds of information and documents should we keep in our personnel files?
A. You should include pretty much all documentation concerning an employee’s history with the company—attendance, pay history, job history, discipline and evaluations—except medical documentation and, perhaps, protected activity information concerning matters such as discrimination and harassment complaints.
There’s no time like now to review your sexual harassment policies and processes. First, remember that sexual harassment by a supervisor is the most dangerous kind. But that’s not the case with most sexual harassment complaints, however—the ones that occur between co-workers.
Muskegon County faces a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit claiming the county failed to respond to sexual harassment complaints dating back nine years. In 2000, Eva Amaya, a former computer analyst for the 60th District Court, complained about inappropriate touching by co-worker Eugene Beene ...
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act protects employees from sexual harassment by co-workers. But what happens if management stops the harassment but the co-workers find other ways to make life miserable for their victims? It’s HR’s responsibility to make sure a victim of sexual harassment isn’t targeted for other mistreatment ...
Here’s something to keep in mind when you find yourself having to terminate an employee who may later sue for race or other discrimination. Past positive evaluations and promotions can be used as solid evidence you didn’t discriminate against the employee.
Sometimes it takes awhile for a company to find out how well an employee is going to work out. For example, it took Guardian Alarm Company of Michigan 21 years to figure out that Ronald Schocker wasn’t a good fit. Now a judge has said, “Wait a minute!”
Many employees seem to believe that they can get job protection and immunity from reasonable discipline just by complaining to management about alleged harassment. But employees who make pests of themselves by reporting every comment they overhear or interaction they see aren’t automatically protected from retaliation ...
Be sure to take it seriously when employees come forward with sexual harassment complaints. Ignoring their complaints could embolden the harassers. To prevent such an unnecessary escalation, make sure you visit the work site and talk to everyone. Check for telltale signs of harassment, such as offensive posters or jokes on bulletin boards ...
Earlier this year, a federal jury in Florida awarded $630,000 to 14 female prison employees who alleged that the state Department of Corrections created a hostile work environment by failing to prevent lewd behavior by male inmates. The court made it very clear that employers must ensure all employees have a harassment-free workplace, regardless of who the harasser is ...
According a recent Zogby International survey, 37% of U.S. workers report that they’ve been bullied at work. Not surprisingly, they say, the overwhelming majority (72%) of bullies are bosses. Workplace bullying is harassment that’s not necessarily based on an employee’s protected characteristic, such as gender or race. But, unlike harassment based on a protected class, bullying may not be illegal ...
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has agreed to pay more than $143,000 to settle sexual harassment complaints by Mary Harris, a GDOT secretary, and Carrie Hart, who staffs the front desk in the commissioner’s office ...
Employers know they have to investigate sexual harassment complaints. It’s the only way to avoid liability in some sexual harassment cases. But your investigation doesn’t have to be perfect—just prompt and reasonable ...
Annie Ludwig began working for the Rochester Psychiatric Center (RPC) as a psychiatric nurse in the Adult Services Unit. Within a month, she was counseled to improve her professional knowledge, supervision and attendance. Otherwise, she would be in danger of losing her job ...
A federal court has ruled that employees who believe their employers harass them because of their military status may file complaints under USERRA. The harassment angle breaks new legal ground. As more veterans return home from active duty, will it open the litigation floodgates?
Employers that use third parties (referred to in the law as credit reporting agencies, or CRAs) to perform background checks and investigations need to be aware of the requirements of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ...
Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann has placed Anthony Gutierrez, his office’s director of general services, on leave during an investigation of sexual harassment complaints by staff members Vanessa Stout and Cindy Stankoski ...
Many organizations pride themselves on offering religious accommodations. But some may be a little too quick to pat themselves on the back. It’s not enough to simply offer religious accommodations such as flexible schedules or shift swapping to allow worship or even prayer breaks ...
The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decisions in Faragher v. City of Boca Raton and Ellerth v. Burlington Industries were a wake-up call for employers to take affirmative steps to prevent, detect and remedy unlawful workplace harassment. When harassment rears its ugly head, here's how to conduct your investigation.
Minor annoyances, favoritism or other unfair treatment in the workplace aren’t enough to sustain a discrimination lawsuit. As the following case shows, employees have to be able to tolerate some uncomfortable moments without resorting to the legal system for relief ...
Having a dedicated hotline for employees to report harassment and discrimination makes good sense. A hotline helps two ways. First, it gives employees a way to raise sensitive issues without going directly to their supervisors—who may be part of the problem. The second benefit is important if an employer winds up being dragged into court over trumped up charges ...
If you downloaded your company handbook from the Internet or took it with you from your last job—beware! Take a look at your anti-harassment policy’s reporting procedures. A new court ruling shows why you should take your policy out, dust it off and look it over closely … at least before a jury does ...
Your organization probably has a sexual harassment policy and provides training on how it works. But does your policy give employees more than one way to lodge a complaint? It should. Here’s why ...
When office romances sour, scorned lovers often use Title VII to allege that their former lover was a sexual harasser. And even if the lovers are happy, workplace romances can cause problems in the office or on the shop floor. If co-workers feel a love affair results in favoritism, the relationship may lead to charges of conflict of interest, harassment, retaliation or discrimination ...
Although Florida’s state whistle-blower law applies only to state government and state contractors, don’t believe you are above the law just because you are a private employer. Rather than ignore a complaint—and risk expensive litigation—you need to establish policies to investigate whistle-blower complaints ...
A former recruiter for K-Sea Transportation of Staten Island is suing the company for $16 million, claiming it failed to address her sexual harassment complaints ...
Q. I know I’m supposed to investigate harassment complaints. I just don’t know what law requires it. Exactly why does an employer need to conduct an investigation of a harassment complaint? ...
When was the last time you read your company’s harassment reporting procedures? Could all employees in your organization understand how—and with whom—to file a complaint? It’s important to ask these questions in the wake of a new court ruling that should give you incentive to cut the legalese and confusion out of your reporting procedures ...
Sometimes, a problem employee claims harassment as a way to protect herself from legitimate discipline. When that happens, it may be tempting to ignore such claims on the presumption they are bogus. It may be tempting to dismiss her complaints as much ado about nothing. But you’ll ignore her at your own peril ...
The best—quite possibly the only—protection employers have against losing a sexual harassment lawsuit is an effective sexual harassment policy. But a policy isn’t worth the paper it’s written on if employees don’t know about it or find it hard to use ...
Sometimes employees who know they are in trouble at work will try to set up lawsuits. That way, they reason, if they get fired, they can sue for “retaliation.” It’s up to HR to ferret out such sneaky tricks and prevent those lawsuits. The best way is to make absolutely sure that you can justify any eventual discipline ...
When was the last time you read your company’s reporting procedures?
And where did you get it in the first place? Please don’t tell me you
copied it from your previous employer’s handbook or, worse yet, pulled
a “one-size-fits-all” policy off the Internet without customizing it. A
new court ruling shows why you should take it out, dust it off and look
it over closely...
If a victim of alleged sexual harassment waits months—or even a year or more—before complaining, you may wonder how serious her claim is. Don’t let your doubts affect how you handle the case. In fact, the best way to protect your organization is to act quickly on all harassment complaints, no matter how improbable, minor or tardy they may seem ...
If you thought only employees could put you on legal notice that
harassment is occurring in your workplace, maybe it’s time you looked
up … into the sky. A new court ruling says that “helicopter
parents”—super-involved moms and dads who hover over their kids’
lives—can officially flip your notice switch, requiring you to take
prompt effective action to stop the harassing conduct. If not, you’ll
see them both in court ...
Employees who quit in frustration when their harassment complaints go unheeded can sue, claiming they were “constructively discharged” because conditions were unbearable. That’s why it’s crucial for the HR office to respond to each and every complaint. Doing so can head off a surprise lawsuit ...
Corporate HR offices across the country began receiving e-mails last month that appeared to be from the EEOC but were actually bogus—and potentially dangerous ...
Many
companies have horribly confusing organizational charts—or no org
charts at all. A new court ruling issues a stern warning to employers:
If you want to avoid harassment liability, you’d better get your
straight-edged ruler out and connect employees to their supervisors by
name.
Twenty-two current and former workers for Casino Queen of East Saint Louis filed a federal lawsuit alleging the casino disciplines black workers more harshly than white workers and favors white employees in giving job assignments and promotions ...
Developing, implementing and enforcing a comprehensive anti-harassment policy is vital to create a safe and comfortable work environment and minimize the potential damage from harassment lawsuits. But having an anti-harassment policy is not enough; the policy must be implemented, promulgated and consistently enforced. Training employees and managers on harassment law and the employer’s harassment policy is an important part of an employer’s defense against a harassment claim—whether the alleged harassment was by a supervisor or a co-worker ...
There’s a new concern for managers and supervisors in New York state. Those who give out bad references or otherwise bad-mouth a former employee who claimed discrimination can be held personally liable for a conspiracy to retaliate ...
Lincoln, NE-based Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Society will pay $285,000 plus a $50,000 annuity to Louella Rollins, a Pittsburgh-area woman who served as state manager for Woodmen in Pennsylvania. Rollins claimed that a man she supervised complained openly about having to work for a woman. She said the employee also grabbed and touched her ...
Remind supervisors, managers and HR staff: Don’t brush off or make light of sexual harassment complaints. Doing so can just add more fuel to the fire. When employees are ignored, they may begin to see every slight that comes their way—getting the cold shoulder at meetings or missing out on promotions—as retaliation for voicing their concerns about sexually hostile behavior. And that can make them much more likely to file lawsuits against your company ...
Question: Think you’ve got a dysfunctional workplace? Take a stroll through the recent 6th Circuit ruling in Parker v. General Extrusions.
The case describes a workplace in which Nancy Parker, one of the few
female employees on the machine-shop floor, was repeatedly taunted,
called names and physically harassed. The response from managers and HR
ranged from mild rebukes to outright humor.
According to the U.S. District Court, Eastern District, WayneStateUniversity appropriately handled sexual harassment complaints by an assistant director in the university’s Center for Chicano-Boricua Studies ...
In the good ol’ days, employers used to control all hiring decisions. Not anymore. Today, the EEOC has the power to decide whom you will have to roll out the red carpet for ...
When a company faces sexual harassment or other discrimination complaints, the investigation has to start as soon as possible. Sometimes that means suspending participants while you sort things out. A prompt conclusion to a thorough investigation is the key to avoiding retaliation charges when you tell everyone to take a “time out” ...
While it’s never a good idea for someone with supervisory authority to engage in a sexual relationship with a subordinate, such an affair doesn’t always trigger employer liability ...
Are your anti-harassment efforts legally bulletproof, or are they full of holes? Probably somewhere in between, if you're like most employers. Here are six holes that need patching in many employers' training and investigation practices ...
Q. We have an employee who has filed several sexual harassment complaints. But when we investigate, they turn out to be false. Can we do something about her? —J.P., Oklahoma
You know to keep employees' health records confidential and locked away. Yet some HR professionals and supervisors aren't so cautious when it comes to in-house talk of health information. Use the following court case to remind supervisors about the legal dangers of such gossip ...
In the good old days, employers used to have control over who they
hired. Not anymore. Today, the EEOC has the power to decide who you
will have to roll out the red carpet for.
The best harassment policy in the world isn't worth the paper it's written on if employees don't take it seriously. To show your policy has teeth, you have to let it bite ...
New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (LAD) prohibits discrimination against employees because of their “race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, affectional or sexual orientation, marital status, familial status, liability for services in the Armed Forces of the United States, disability or nationality” ...
While it’s vital to react promptly when employees formally file sexual harassment complaints, what do you do if they approach you informally and don’t want to make a formal complaint? ...
If you don’t have an action plan in place for responding to sexual harassment complaints, develop one now. Don’t wait until the phone rings or an e-mail arrives detailing sexual wrongdoing. By then, it may be too late ...
Most organizations have comprehensive Internet, e-mail and electronic communications policies that spell out what's acceptable usage and what's not. But few employers have addressed a growing problem: the proliferation of employee Web logs, or "blogs" ...
HR Law 101: Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Courts are increasingly taking a dim view of employers that don't take decisive action to prevent sexual harassment ...
Casting admiring glances or making other such flirtatious gestures toward a co-worker isn't sexual harassment under the Florida Civil Rights Act. That law doesn't require employers to guarantee that employees won't ever look at each other in a way perceived as a "come-on" ...
Frivolous lawsuits will forever be a thorn in the side of HR. But, according to a new report, employees are becoming more successful in job discrimination complaints filed with the EEOC ...
Issue: Employees who are negatively affected by workplace discrimination can file lawsuits, even if they aren't the targets. Risk: The EEOC is encouraging such whistle-blower suits, which opens a new ...
Retaliating against employees for filing harassment complaints is an obvious no-no. But that doesn't mean employees automatically earn a "Do not touch" label ...
Issue: Employers can be liable for sexual harassment if they "knew or should have known" about it but failed to act. Risk: Courts increasingly say you "know" of harassment once ...
Hopefully, you already take any discrimination or harassment complaints from minority employees seriously. But what if a white male blows the whistle about race discrimination he sees affecting his minority co-workers? ...
Don't think that you can automatically swat away a pesky sexual-harassment suit by saying the complaining employee didn't follow your complaint procedure to a "T." Courts may let employees pursue their ...
If your workplace has a "creative" side to it, listen up: A court has ruled for the first time that you can defend a sexual harassment claim by arguing a "creative ...
You've got a new reason to take a harder line on sexual banter and crude antics in the workplace. One of the most conservative courts of appeal sent a clear message ...
Issue: A new ruling lowers the bar on what courts consider sexual harassment. Risk: Allowing "boys to be boys", even if they don't target anyone for abuse, can now cost ...
You know to investigate harassment complaints when they land on your desk. But what if the complaining employee shows a lack of interest in her initial complaint, ...
Issue: Courts place the burden on employers to complete investigations of sexual harassment complaints, even in the face of reluctant complainants. Risk: Failing to pursue complaints actively will come back ...
Issue: Responding to employee harassment complaints is a high-stakes venture. Risk: A botched investigation can damage employee moral and spark a lawsuit. Action: Make sure you (or any manager ...
When does a company officially "know" of a harassment complaint? It's not always when the complaint is lodged with the designated person in your reporting procedures. If your lower-level managers get ...
During a layover in Rome, two Delta flight attendants went shopping. Afterward, the male employee invited his female co-worker to his hotel room to sample a new wine. After drinking a ...
The president of Windermere Relocation Services really wanted to win the Starbucks account. He told Maureen Little, the firm's top corporate services manager, that he wanted to "do whatever it takes ...
Lynne Barrett told seven other employees, the CEO's son and two lawyers that her supervisor sexually harassed her. But she never reported the misconduct to any of the 12 managers designated ...
After downing at least nine beers during and after a company dinner, which followed a training program, Ray Zakaras spoke freely about his objections to the program and made rude comments ...
After complaining to her store manager several times about harassment, Gabrielle Breda decided to resign and sue rather than take her complaint up the chain of command. Company policy ...
For months, Richard Corliss hurled racial slurs at two African-American co-workers at McDonald's. When the two women complained, their supervisor said he couldn't control Corliss' mouth, claimed he didn't know how ...
Faced with a bad situation, Wax Works record stores managed to make it even worse, and paid a big price. One of Wax Works' store managers, Kerry Ogden, had compiled ...
Steven and Karen Holman are not only married and work together in the same maintenance department, but they also filed suit together claiming sexual harassment ...
You don't have to worry that the target of your harassment investigation will turn around and sue you for emotional distress. The 2nd Circuit said he ...
Protect your organization from employee lawsuits for harassment by focusing your attention on both preventive and corrective measures. Provide every employee ...
