Harassment

Additional HR Resources First Line of Defense DVD-based training for supervisors on the most critical legal issues The Plus of "Us" DVD-based diversity training for employees and supervisors creates healthy workplace Stopping Harassment Training program for supervisors to prevent sexual harassment Stop Harassment (CA) California supervisors' training program on sexual harassment Employee Training Stop Sexual Harassment Training Kit for employees Executive Training DVD informs executives on risks of sexual harrasment Preventing Harassment Report focuses on preventing workplace sexual harrassment Supervisor Training Harassment booklet helps train managers avoid legal pitfalls Discover policy pitfalls Audit your workplace policies before a plaintiff’s attorney does 50 Laws in 50 States Compare side by side and see exactly what employers need to do

The U.S. Senate confirmation hearings on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court pushed the issue of sexual harassment to a new place of awareness among Americans. Before that, sexual harassment wasn't really a phrase Americans were accustomed to hearing, and few knew exactly what it meant in the employment law sense.

First Line of Defense: supervisor training series, including workplace harassment - New

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Harassment tools for Employment Law Letter subscribers

But those days are long gone and now human resources professionals have racial harassment, national origin harassment, religious harassment, age harassment, and disability harassment to keep track of as well and as sexual harassment. And some states and cities have laws that prohibit harassment in even more categories, such as sexual orientation.

Basic Training for Supervisors - easy-to-read training guides, including harassment

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Harassment?
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has specifically warned all employers that they must establish harassment policies and complaint procedures for all types of protected harassment.

The following conduct could be harassment if it's based on the victim's protected class:

• persistent offensive comments;
• threats or intimidation;
• physical assault;
• sabotaging the victim's work; or
• making false accusations against the victim.

An employer's liability for harassment depends on whether the harasser was someone with authority over the employee or was a coworker and what the employer knew and did in response to the harassment. An employer also can be liable if a customer, vendor, or other nonemployee harasses an employee and the employer doesn't take reasonable steps to prevent or correct it.

Hostile work environment

Harassment usually takes the form of a "hostile work environment," in which a reasonable person would find it hostile or abusive and that a particular person experiencing the conduct finds hostile or abusive. It happens when one or more individuals create an offensive, intimidating, or oppressive atmosphere in which an individual experiences workplace harassment and/or fear.

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Related articles on Harassment in the Workplace featured in HR Hero Line

• 11 Ways to for Supervisors to Avoid Workplace Lawsuits
  (South Carolina Employment Law Letter, January 2010)
• How Employers Can Avoid Becoming an EEOC Statistic: Part 2
  (Vermont Employment Law Letter , August 2009)
• What Can You Do About Workplace Gossip?
  (West Virginia Employment Law Letter, April 2008)
• Who Should Conduct Internal Workplace Investigations?
  (New York Employment Law Letter, July 2007)
• When Employees Don't Pack Their Inhibitions for Business Trips
  (Virginia Employment Law Letter , October 2007)

HR Tools for Harassment

• Sample Policy - Equal Employment
• Sample Policy - Harassment and/or Discrimination
• Sample Policy - Respectful Workplace