By Eric B. Meyer
When offering respect in the workplace training for employees and supervisors, I emphasize that an employee who laughs at sex jokes in the workplace is the same employee who may later sue for sexual harassment.
Like Little Ladner did.
(Yes, Little Ladner)
Ms. Ladner used to work for a nursing home in Mississippi. In her Complaint against her former employer, she alleged a kitchen sink of classic sexual harassment: Read more…
By Andrea E.M. Stone
The popularity of various social media channels certainly complicates issues for HR managers these days, creating a need not only for them to remain up to date on the latest technologies but also to ensure that policy manuals are updated to reflect current issues and modes of communication.
Take sexual harassment, for example. Despite all the efforts by various governmental agencies to crack down on harassment and bullying in the workplace, they still exist — and now with a new twist because the harassment is not just physical and verbal anymore; it has evolved into the cyber world. Read more…
By Eric B. Meyer
An EEOC complaint is not your free pass to goof off at work.
Or sexually harass your co-workers.
Gary Vaughn found out the hard way.
After he filed a Charge of Discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, he spent the next two years sexually harassing a female co-worker — to the point whether she took out a restraining order against him and filed her own Charge of Discrimination in which she alleged that Mr. Vaughn had sexually harassed her. Read more…
By Eric B. Meyer
This case is so captivating that, at 35 pages long, it held my attention for 24 of them. Winning!
I’ll whet your whistle with the opening paragraph of EEOC v. The McPherson Cos., Inc.:
This Title VII case revolves around repeated churlish, childish, gross, sordid, vulgar, foul, disgusting, profane utterances in the workplace. The question in the case, however, is not how vile and obnoxious this workplace language was. It was vile and obnoxious enough to score nine on a scale of ten. This will become apparent as the story unfolds. The question for the court is rather whether this verbal mayhem morphed from a competition to see who could beat whom in the foul-mouth game into a cause of action under Title VII by an offended employee for same-sex sexual harassment.” Read more…
Employment laws can be confusing and downright scary.
They don’t have to be. As a public service, from now until my special Halloween webinar Answers to the World’s Scariest Employment Law Questions, I’ll be tackling each major law one by one to give you what you REALLY need to know. By the end, you’ll have handy one-page cheat sheets for each and every law and your terror level will be reduced to zero.
Today’s Topic: Harassment Read more…
By Eric B. Meyer
You’ve got an anti-harassment policy. All managers and employees have copies and you just completed training on the policy for your entire workforce.
But is your policy bulletproof? I mean really bulletproof?
And if an employee claims that a harasser lurks in your workplace, if sued, will a court agree that the steps you have taken were reasonably designed to end the harassment?
Just how confident are you? Read more…
Think you just can’t make it through the morning — or whenever you start your day — without that first cup of coffee? You’re not alone.
A new survey from CareerBuilder and Dunkin’ Donuts (and yes, they have a bit of a vested interest in this) found that close to half of all American workers (46 percent) say they are less productive without coffee.
If you’re anything like me, you probably already knew that, because I know I have a harder time getting going in the morning without that first cup of java. Read more…
By Eric B. Meyer
Courts analyzing anti-discrimination statutes such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act mandate that employers educate employees about discrimination in the workplace and provide a way for them to complain.
Then, once made aware of discrimination in the workplace, the employer must take steps that are reasonably designed to end the discrimination. That could mean anything from a verbal warning up to termination of employment. That decision is up to the employer.
In Philadelphia Housing Authority v. AFSCME, after investigating a complaint of sexual harassment, a unionized employer with a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment fired the alleged harasser. The union subsequently filed a grievance that eventually led to arbitration, at which time the arbitrator deemed the alleged harasser’s behavior to be “lewd, lascivious and extraordinarily perverse.” Read more…
By Eric B. Meyer
In Mann v. Staples, Inc., a female employee received unwelcome comments about her appearance and physique, was kissed and groped, and called a “skank ass bitch.”
The New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, described this as a “pattern of systemic sexual harassment” — one in which the alleged harasser appeared to have never received any anti-harassment training.
So, what did the court do? It affirmed summary judgment for the employer and dismissed the plaintiff’s Complaint.
What?!? Read more…
By Eric B. Meyer
When Harold Wasek signed on to work at an oil rig in Pennsylvania, he had no idea what lay in store for him, especially when one of his co-workers discovered that Wasek would get easily riled with sexually explicit stories, jokes, fantasies, and names.
“You’ve got such a pretty mouth.”
“Boy you have pretty lips.”
“You know you like it, sweetheart.”
Wasek complained to his supervisor. But the harassment worsened. He was touched in a sexual manner: grabbing his buttocks, poking him in the rear with a hammer handle and something described as a long sucker rod. Read more…
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