Training needed to prevent sexual harassing at work
Sexual harassment was not on the minds of the members of Congress when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.
Racial and religious harassment was clearly prohibited by the CRA. Over the next 25 years, developments led to the protection of pregnant women, and gradually, sexual harassment specifically began to be protected. With two major Supreme Court cases in the late 1990s, an approach to handling such cases was outlined. Other developments and regulations led to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission essentially mandating training that required covered employers to regularly train their employees to avoid sexual harassment situations.
With the recent sexual harassment scandals from the worlds of Hollywood, the media and politics, businesses should reaffirm their commitment to effective training of employees to try to avoid as many claims and awkward situations as possible. Many businesses undertook what came to be known as “EEOC Training” in the late 1990s for at least their supervisors, if not for all employees. However, the economic crash of 2008-09 gave many businesses the excuse to stop that training.
With the slow recovery since then, businesses have been slow to bring back training. This is especially true for small and medium size businesses that do not have the in-house human resources staff to provide such training.
The penalty for slacking off training could be quite high. Having a business on the front page of the newspaper due to a charge of sexual harassment, or worse, sexual assault, is bad for business as well as employee morale. Each claim involves legal fees and related costs.
Many cases, even with questionable grounds, are settled for cash payments rather than facing even longer legal battles. The biggest penalty is the loss of management time dealing with such claims. It is far cheaper to avoid the claims than deal with them. Due to the currently charged environment, this is an especially bad time for a business to have a claim. This month’s Rob Porter scandal is yet another warning to employers that any charges of sexual harassment or abuse against employees are especially harmful today.
So first, businesses should educate their workforce of their policies against any form of discrimination.
Second, businesses should provide supervisors with EEO training that includes emphasis on avoiding and dealing with sexual harassment complaints. If resources are available, providing training to all employees is even better.
Third, businesses should have a clear process for investigating all complaints, no matter how minor they might appear.
And fourth, businesses should ensure that there is no retaliation against
claimants and witnesses.
One case I handled comes to mind. The claimant was a very attractive woman in her early 20s. She indicated to a senior administrator that her boss had engaged in sexually explicit discussions with her. When the administrator offered to investigate, the claimant said that there was no need to investigate because “she was used to it.” Nothing was done with regard to this potential claim.
Unfortunately, when the claimant was terminated for poor performance a couple months later, she had a law firm send a letter to the employer claiming her termination was retaliation for resisting sexual harassment and reporting it. The letter demanded thousands of dollars in damages.
The case was later abandoned by the claimant, but the damage was done in thousands of dollars in legal fees and management time.