Other Articles By Dick Couser
:: Maintaining Your Corporation
Sexual Harassment–An Issue in any Employment Setting
Discrimination based on sex is prohibited by both state and federal law.
Sex discrimination includes sexual harassment. Sexual harassment includes both (1) "quid pro quo" harassment where submission to sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature are made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of employment, and (2) "hostile environment" harassment where the conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment.
New Hampshire discrimination law excludes nonprofit charitable and religious organizations from its coverage. Federal law has no such exclusion but only applies to employers of fifteen or more employees, and which is engaged in interstate commerce. Sexual harassment, however, is a potential source of significant liability to employers under these laws and there may be liability apart from the statutes for employers who are not covered by them. Damages can include lost wages of employees who are forced to leave their employment because of the harassment, damages for emotional distress and other consequences of the harassment, and, in some instances, punitive damages.
In a recent New Hampshire matter in which the author represented the plaintiff who had been sexually harassed, a jury awarded one million dollars in punitive damages.
Employers should have policies against sexual harassment that are clearly communicated to employees, that define sexual harassment, and that tell employees how to report harassment when it occurs and that there will be no retaliation or adverse consequences to them in the workplace for making a report. When a report of sexual harassment occurs, the employer should promptly and effectively investigate and take appropriate action to discipline an offending employee and prevent further harassment.
Many employers are insensitive to the adverse effects of sexual harassment on persons who are subject to harassment. It is not uncommon for women to experience significant emotional distress as a result of harassment. Anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, weight loss, low self-esteem, humiliation, and a sense of vulnerability are natural consequences of harassment in the workplace. When employers deal with harassment by a "slap on the wrist" to the harasser and returning the harassed employee to the same position she was in before, they are setting up a major problem. The major problem is twofold:
1. The harassed woman has severe emotional consequences, sometimes making her unable to sustain employment and seriously damaging her health.
2. The legal consequences to the employer can be financially severe, as in the case noted above in which a jury awarded punitive damages of a million dollars.
There are other forms of sex discrimination than sexual harassment. Discrimination in pay, or other terms or conditions of employment, based on sex is also against the law. Women can be harassed in the workplace in discriminatory ways that are not overtly sexual but still based on their sex. These forms of discrimination are also illegal sex discrimination.
