Study: Many who report harassment face reprisal

Three years into the #Metoo movement, there may be more awareness around workplace sexual harassment. But a new report finds that almost three-quarters of people reporting such harassmentsuffer fromretaliation if they complain.

More than seven out of 10 people who reported sexual harassment at the workplace said they faced some form of retaliation, up to and including being fired, said the report. It analyzed 3,317 online requests for legal help from the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, between January 2018 and the end of last April.

The finding on retaliation was one of the most striking of the broad-ranging report. It also found that workplace harassment severely impacted workers’ economic, physical and mental health, and that often, people were subjected to more than one form of workplace harassment — both sexual and racial, for example.

The study was conducted by the National Women’s Law Center, which houses and administers the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, launched in early 2018 to help workers who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford to take their complaints of sexual misconduct to court. It connects them with legal assistance and in some cases helps defray costs.

The number of people reporting retaliation was “shocking,” said Sharyn Tejani, director of the fund.

“Retaliation takes all different forms,” she said. “Losing your job, losing shifts, losing pay — or if you’ve already lost your job, you can’t find another job in that industry.”

The report found that power dynamics remain a strong factor fueling sexual harassment. More than half, 56 percent, of workers who identified their harasser in their online requests said it was someone they reported to.

And often, harassers were not held accountable; nearly two in five people, 37 percent, said nothing happened to the perpetrator.

Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the law center and cofounder of the fund, said the scenarios outlined in the report should sound “an alarm to legislators and policymakers: Until harassers are held accountable, workplaces will remain unsafe for everyone.”

In a statement, she said the findings “reveal the courage it takes for people to come forward and report the harassment and abuse they’re experiencing in the workplace.”

Among the findings:

Of those who experienced retaliation, 36 percent said they were fired, and 19 percent said they’d experienced poor performance evaluations, or were otherwise treated poorly at work.

Most people reported harassment to their employer, 64 percent, rather than a government agency, court or law enforcement.

Nearly a third (29 percent) of those who reported harassment said nothing was ever done about it.

Nearly one in five people (19 percent) said the harassment had a damaging impact on their mental health.