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Employer Responsibilities in Sexual Harassment Cases
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits all forms of discrimination based on sex. Sexual harassment is a type of workplace discrimination based on sex. In sexual harassment, an actor makes sexual advances and proposes sexual offers that the actor knows that the recipient does not want. The victim must actively show by firm remonstration, rebuff, and disapproval that the advances are not welcomed. Any type of coy flirtation such as “playing hard to get” may kill a sexual harassment claim.
In the event of a report of sexual harassment by an employee, employers have 2 chief duties: 1.) they must take reasonable care to stop the sexual harassment, and they must 2.) compensate the victim for sexual harassment that has occurred. To fulfill the first duty, senior managers, officers, and directors should arrange a formal meeting with the accused to get both sides of the story.
If sexual harassment is highly suspected, the employer can distribute a pamphlet explaining sexual harassment, inform employees on how to make a complaint, and reaffirm the company’s firm policy against sexual harassment as pursuant with federal law. The company should then thoroughly investigate the matter by appointing an internal investigations committee.
To fulfill the second duty, the employer must actually enforce its purported policy with an appropriately stern punishment. This may involve termination or suspension of the alleged harasser. One thing the employer should not do is fire the alleged victim, lest the employer be guilty of another tort: retaliatory termination.
Victims of sexual harassment are entitled to all available remedies and damages, such as loss of employment ability, loss of wages, medical expenses, emotional distress, and punitive damages meant to punish the employer’s egregious and flagrant failure to stamp out sexual harassment in the workplace.
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