Lawyers Weekly USA regularly reports on an assortment of sexual
harassment cases in addition to many other civil lawsuits. Their 9/22/97
issue included a summary of a case in which a company lost a suit in which
an employee who claimed to have been harassed informed her immediate superior,
but the superior didn’t bring the complaint to the attention of any higher
level superiors. The moral of this case seems to be that employees and
front line supervisors or managers need to have some very clear method
for bypassing normal communication channels about such matters. (The citation
is U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit, Young v. Bayer Corp., No 96-3700,
Sept. 5, 1997)
In another case reported by LW USA, “a worker at a group home for the
mentally retarded was sexually harassed by a resident”. The Eighth Circuit
said she could sue her employer. The moral of that case seems to be that
the employer didn’t make a sufficient effort to protect their workers from
their residents. (The citation is U.S. Court of Appeals,, 8th Circuit,
Crist v. Focus Homes, Inc., No. 96-406, 8/15/97.)
The same issue of LW USA reported on a third case in which a male worker
sued his employer because of being sexually harassed by a male heterosexual
boss. I guess the moral of this case is that sexual harassment isn’t limited
to males who are bothering females at work. (The citation is Cunningham
v. Koehnen, MN S. Ct., No. C6-96-1118, 8/28/97.)
Meanwhile, LW USA also reported on a case where an employee, who was
fired after he admitted (in a deposition) that he may have harassed a co-worker,
successfully sued his employer for “retaliation”. According to LW USA,
“the plaintiff claimed that he wasn’t fired for engaging in harassment;
he was fired because he got the company in trouble by telling the truth.”
The moral of this case seems to be “Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t”.
(The citation for this case is Merritt v. Dillard Paper Co., U.S. CA, 11
Circuit, No. 96-6247, August 29, 1997.)
To order reprints of these cases call Lawyers Weekly USA at 800-933-5594.
Some information about lawsuits is available online at http://www.lawyersweekly.com
Meanwhile, Research Recommendations, (8/25/97) reported on a
bizarre case where seven white police officers sued their city because
their supervisor made sexist, racist remarks to female and black officers.
The white officers sued on the grounds that the supervisor’s comments created
a hostile work environment. (Childress v. City of Richmond, No. 96-1585)
Unless you work by yourself, your business could be at risk from a sexual
harassment lawsuit. To protect your company, I suggest that you get a copy
of the Employers’ Guide to Preventing Sexual Harassment, for $33.45
(shipping included) from National Institute of Business Management, PO
Box 9070, MacLean, VA 22102-0070.
Another useful resource is the web site of Employers Publications at
http://www.sexualharassmentpolicy.com
Without denying that many employees are seriously threatened by other
workers, the law is encouraging employees to look for opportunities to
“hit the jackpot” with a large lawsuit judgment. No matter how hard you
might try to create a non-threatening work environment, there will always
be some employees who are overly aggressive with sexual advances and other
employees who may be looking for the slightest provocation as an excuse
to sue their employer.