The real face of sexual harassment

Fox News gets the attention, but the behavior flourishes at thousands of low-wage workplaces

When Fox News ousted Bill O’Reilly last month, some women’s rights advocates hailed the move as a cultural turning point in the battle against sexual harassment. That optimism was largely misplaced.

The fired TV host walked away with an exit package worth more money than most people earn in a lifetime, along with praise from his bosses as “one of the most accomplished TV personalities in the history of cable news.” This is supposed to deter sexual harassers?

Nor did Fox News’ decision have much to do with any sudden regard for the seriousness of sexual harassment. It had far more to do with fleeing advertisers and fear of a viewer backlash that the channel experienced after allegations that O’Reilly was a serial harasser became public.

And it’s sad the forces that brought down O’Reilly don’t transfer to the more typical harassment cases, which often involve women with low-wage jobs at small businesses, restaurants, retail stores or casinos, where harassment flourishes outside the hot glare of publicity.

Files of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) show thousands of women — and some men — who suffer in obscurity, even after working up the courage to make a federal case out of it, which only a tiny fraction do. Consider these examples:

uIn an EEOC lawsuit last month, female farm workers from Southern California accused Bornt & Sons and its former labor contractor of allowing a manager to harass women since 2010 with unwanted touching, forcible kissing and offering benefits in exchange for sex. In one incident, they allege the manager locked a worker in an office, undressed and ordered her to perform a sex act. When the women complained, they faced retaliation, as did colleagues who tried to stand up for them. (A Bornt spokeswoman told USA TODAY she’d provide a statement but failed to supply one. The labor contractor did not return calls.)

uEighty-nine women who worked for Burger King franchisee Carrols Corp. charged that they were subjected to "exposure of genitalia, strip searches, stalking and even rape," often by managers. Some were fired when they complained. Others quit. Carrols, in a consent decree in 2013, admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to pay $2.5 million in damages and lost wages.

uFive former employees of precious-metals dealer Northwest Territorial Mint in Washington state said they had to put up with lewd jokes, derogatory sexual terms and comments on women's breast sizes from their boss, according to an EEOC investigation. In February, as part of a consent decree, a federal judge in Seattle approved a $725,000 settlement for the women, who had either quit or been fired.

It’s as shocking as it is depressing to realize that such behavior continues more than 30 years after the Supreme Court recognized what’s now known as a sexually hostile workplace and found, in a unanimous ruling, that it violated the law. Employers have had since 1986 to clean up their acts, and some have. Yet since 2010, an average of nearly 7,300 sexual harassment cases have been filed each year at the EEOC.

Those numbers are the tip of a much larger problem. Approximately 70% of individuals who experienced harassment never talked with a supervisor, manager or union representative about the conduct, according to a 2016 EEOC task force report. And 13% or fewer file a formal complaint. Little wonder, when they see what happens to some of those who do report. Victims have faced the loss of their jobs and even retaliation against family members who work at the same place.

After so many years and so little progress, what can make a difference? Change depends on recognition from the top that harassment is wrong and that, with or without lawsuits, there is a financial cost in terms of reputation, job turnover and lost productivity, according to Commissioners Victoria Lipnic and Chai Feldblum, leaders of the EEOC task force report.

Harassers must be held accountable, and not with multimillion dollar exit packages. Workers need to know they can report harassment without losing their jobs. Training can’t just be about avoiding lawsuits, but about preventing harassment in the first place through efforts that involve everyone from customers and workers to supervisors and top executives.

The tumult at Fox News once again galvanized public attention to sexual harassment. The lesson is not about hailing what its executives did as an example, but learning from what they failed to do for such a long time.