Harassment at Workplace

Many workers who are subjected to sexual or other forms or harassment prefer not to disclose this to their supervisor or human resources department. This reluctance to speak up is usually motivated by fear of retaliatory termination in response to a complaint about harassment.

However, choosing not to complain about harassment at your workplace is hardly ever a good idea. First, the harassment which is not addressed usually only gets worse as the harasser sees how much he can get away with without being punished. More importantly, under California law, while the employer is strictly liable for the harassment by a victim’s supervisor, the employer is liable for harassment by a co-worker only if the employer knew or had a reason to know of the harassment. Thus, by not complaining about harassment, the victim virtually forecloses the future opportunity to seek legal redress for hostile work environment and harassment, as it’s hard to blame someone for preventing harassment if that entity wasn’t even aware of misconduct which the victim of harassment was subjected to.

It is commonly known that sexual harassment at workplace involves unwelcome acts of sexual nature by a co-workers or a supervisor, such as unwelcome touching, repeated unwanted propositioning, conditioning employment or promotion on sexual favors, etc.

Offensive conduct, however, need not be sexual in nature to create a hostile work environment in the workplace. Hostile non-sexual conduct (or language) directed at an employee because of his or her gender may create an actionable hostile environment. A pervasive pattern of abuse violates Title VII even if not motivated by sexual desire to drive women out of the organization. Rude overbearing, loud, vulgar and generally unpleasant comments by a male supervisor toward female subordinates, coupled with physically aggressive (though non-sexual) actions, may constitute sexual harassment if male subordinates were treated with proper respect. Interestingly enough, the fact that there were more women than men in the office does not make a difference.

A non-sexual conduct that singles out an employee based on gender may also be actionable and constitute sexual harassment/hostile work environment . In one California case, a hostile work environment was shown by evidence that male police officers engaged in overtly hostile acts toward female police officer, including stuffing her shotgun barrel with paper so that the weapon would explode if fired, spreading untrue rumors about her abilities, singling her out for unfavorable work assignments and shifts, making false complaints about her performance, and even threatening to disrupt her wedding.

Articles Posted in Harassment at Workplace

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