Harassment and Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
Harassment and Sexual harassment prevention are one of the most important things you can do for your business to limit the risk of expensive employee lawsuits. Both the dept of labor, through title 7 of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and many states, such as CA and New York, require a policy and training of employees to prevent harassment and sexual harassment in the workplace. From a legal standpoint, it is important to have policies in place before something happens rather than after it does.
Harassment and Sexual Harassment Policy
As an employer, you are required to protect both employees and independent contractors from harassment. Creating and publishing a policy of the company’s position against harassing co-workers goes a long way to show that the employer is proactive. This policy should be explained thoroughly during the onboarding process, that way guidelines about what constitutes harassment are clear from the beginning of an employee’s time at the company. If you have an allegation of harassment and have published a meaningful policy, it serves as part of your defense and the courts will give the company credit for taking steps to prevent harassment.
Defining Harassment and Sexual Harassment
A meaningful sexual harassment prevention policy must include a clear definition of harassment and sexual harassment with specific examples of prohibited behavior.
Sexual harassment is defined as quid pro quo, meaning “this for that” or “I’ll give you a promotion if you go out with me.” It is also defined as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.
Harassment does not have to be of a sexual nature, however, and can include offensive remarks about a person’s sex. For example, it is illegal to harass a woman by making offensive comments about women in general. Harassment can also include repeatedly asking someone to socialize outside of work after they have declined, standing too close to someone else, innuendos, etc. Both the victim and the harasser can be either a woman or a man, and the victim and harasser can be of the same sex.
Although the law does not prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not profoundly serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision, such as the victim not being given a deserved raise, being fired, or demoted.
The harasser can be the victim’s supervisor, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or someone who is not an employee of the employer, such as a client, vendor, independent contractor, etc.
Reporting Harassment and Sexual Harassment
Other essential information that is required to be in the policy is how a victim of sexual harassment is to notify the company of harassment, which includes who they are to report the harassment to and what they can expect will happen once they report it. It is best done with a procedure where each step is fully explained. Yes, this policy can be pages long and very extensive; there are many important things that need to be included.
A harassment policy should include,
- A compressive definition of harassment and sexual harassment
- Clear examples of both harassment and sexual harassment with explanations on how a situation should be properly handled
- An explanation of what will occur once a report is filed and the steps that will be taken
- Distinct rules against retaliation of any kind in the workforce; steps should be taken to protect victims against any form of retaliation
Retaliation Prevention
Any form of retaliation in the workplace is illegal. Steps need to be taken to prevent retaliation against any party involved from occurring in the situation. This may look like refraining from sharing the names of employees involved and keeping the details of harassment reports private.
In addition, it is against the law for the company or the harasser to retaliate against the victim for reporting the harassment. The harassment prevention policy must also state that retaliation is to be reported if it occurs, with the steps of how to report it, who to report it to, and what is to be expected once the report has been made.
It is suggested that you include in the section of who to report harassment and retaliation to, that you also state employees have the option to report the harassment to another manager or other responsible person instead of their immediate supervisor.
When a sexual harassment report is filed action should be swift so that the matter is addressed promptly, and the situation is investigated thoroughly.
Victim of workplace harassment of any kind is usually reluctant to come forward until they have reached their limit. It is best to give employees options so they can feel more comfortable talking about this kind of sensitive and embarrassing situation to someone they trust.
The point is to remove any barrier to addressing a claim of harassment within the company. If the harassment is not remedied internally the employee may choose to seek legal counsel, which an employer never wants. It is going to be best if you face harassment claims of any kind head-on so that the situation can be resolved internally.
Conclusion
Having a clear sexual harassment policy with a complete definition of what constitutes harassment in the workplace can help all employees feel safe in the workplace, while also protecting the employer from legal action. A sexual harassment policy needs to include a definition of prohibited sexual behavior and information on how to file a report with the company.
If you need help with creating complete and accurate harassment and sexual harassment prevention policy, reach out to us. We can help you with the policy and training for your employees and managers. We can also help with how to approach an investigation into a report of sexual harassment and what steps need to be taken.