Sexual Harassment
Sexual Harassment can take many forms; including a request for sexual favors; unwelcome sexual advances towards others, verbal, physical, or foreseeable conduct of a sexual nature towards people. This illegal conduct could occur in houses, or public places, hotels, restaurants, and can most often occur in the workplace. Employers, especially in the service industries, should pay careful attention to complaints by employees about customer conduct. An employer can be held liable under Title VII, for customer harassment if it fails to remedy or prevent a customer-created hostile work environment.
Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances, including but not limited to the following:
The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex
The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee
The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct
Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim
The harasser's conduct must be unwelcome
In the case of Lockard v. Pizza Hut, Inc. (10th Cir. 1998) 162 F.3d 1062, a waitress sued Pizza Hut and its franchisee under Title VII for hostile work environment sexual harassment. While waiting tables, Lockard was harassed by two male customers. On a number of occasions, Lockard had informed her manager that she felt uncomfortable waiting on these men. One night, after Lockard seated the men, one of the men told Lockard that she "smelled good" and pulled her hair. Lockard immediately inf...
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...t the person making these unwanted sexual advances. Just as important, confronting your employer on their responsibilities of creating and maintaining a safe work environment between employees and customers. Reporting offensive behavior to employers or local authority can be done in person or through the person designated to handle Sexual Harassment complaints. When taking someone under a sexual harassment charge and following the proper procedures, justice will be served.
Bibliography:
Bennett-Alexander, D. D., & Pincus, L. B. (1998). Employment law for business (2nd ed.) [UOP Special Edition Series]. Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin/McGraw-Hill.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Lockard v. Pizza Hunt, Inc. (10th Cir. 1998) 162 F.3d 1062
EEOC COMPLIANCE MANUAL
TITLE 29--LABOR PART 1604--GUIDELINES ON DISCRIMINATION BECAUSE
Any conduct an employee is subjected to that goes against their will and protected under the law thus qualifies to be harassment. For the case of Gregg V. Hay-Adams Hotel, Clark’s behavior qualifies to be harassment since they were unwelcome by Gregg. According to the allegations made by Gregg, Clark made suggestive remarks towards her, which she never appreciated. Secondly, Clark made physical contacts with Gregg, which the latter states were very unwelcome. The suggestive remarks Clark made towards Gregg affected her emotional stability in one way or the other. She found the working environment very unwelcoming. Additionally, when Clark made physical contacts with her, Gregg must have felt that the workplace was unsafe for her existence. We can categorize this form of harassment as a sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment by definition is based on conduct of a sexual nature. An article on ENotes.com describes sexual harassment as;
comments and verbal abuse. When sexual harassment occurs in the workplace, it can create an
"Sexual harassment is a type of sex discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Unwelcome sexual advances, demands for sexual favors and other verbal or physical behavior of a sexual nature is inappropriate behavior when the behavior unequivocally or verifiably influences an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates a scary, antagonistic or hostile workplace (Noe, 2011).” " Sexual harassment can be the point at which somebody feels uncomfortable or irritated in a sexual manner, for instance, this could be as a remark, joke, look, or motion. There are two noteworthy sorts of sexual harassment: Quid pro quo which is the point at which a man is punished for dismissing
Sexual harassment is an important issue in every business; if left unattended it could cost companies millions in damages. In 1980 the Supreme Court ruled that sexual harassment was a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. From 1978 to 1980, sexual harassment cases brought against companies cost them $189 million. This number rose to $267 million from 1985-1987. Damages are just measured only by numbers. Sexual harassment can cause harm to a company's image, reputation, customers, as well as their revenue.
The EEOC has also stated that a victim of sexual harassment need not say anything to any supervisor. Co-workers and supervisors are liable if any one kn...
According to legal dictionary (2013), sexual harassment refers to any form of unwelcome sexual behavior or advances, appeals for sexual errands, and other form of physical or verbal conduct or behavior that portrays sex nature and tends to make the working environment offensive or hostile. Any behavior or remarks that take such forms constitute sexual harassment when: Compliance to such conduct happens either implicitly or explicitly based on employment of an individual, rejection or compliance to such conduct is used to make decisions during employment and when such conduct interferes or affects performance of a person at the workplace. Sexual harassment ta...
What comes to mind when you think of sexual harassment? Most people picture an individual grabbing another individual unwillingly in attempt of committing nonconsensual sex. However, sexual harassment can be something as insignificant as being called something negative. It is anything that makes a person feel uncomfortable about his/her sexuality. According to the law, sexual harassment is anything from unwelcome sexual advances and requests for sexual favors to verbal statements of a sexual nature. It violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Sexual Harassment Policy, which is currently in place in all schools and work places, is aimed at providing an educational and work environment free of harassment. This includes sexual harassment and every form of intimidation or exploitation.
It calls for every person to counter these perceived vices in society. Thus, matters of inclusion and personal intuition are very paramount to be alive in a world which is more ethical. Sexual harassment in the workplace presents an ongoing and growing risk to businesses operating in the United States. Today, the time is right for businesses to begin to manage their risk in this area more wisely. Preventing sexual harassment in the workplace requires a considerable investment of time and personnel. In the end, however, these costs will be offset by significant savings in legal fees and health-care costs. Companies will also benefit from increased worker productivity. From a purely business perspective, a company only stands to gain if it takes a no-nonsense, hardline position on sexual harassment. Not only is it the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to
Each year many people first become aware of sexual harassment when they are harassed in the workplace. Today in the United States there still seems to be a need for general information about sexual harassment. Many people are unaware of exactly what sexual harassment is, how it affects its victims, where it happens, and what to do if it happens to them. There are many laws that protect people from sexual harassment and provide them with information about what to do if you should ever be in this situation (Wyatt, 2000).
The U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission describes sexual harassment as a form of gender discrimination that is in violation of the Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Undesirable sexual advances, request for sexual favors, and further verbal and physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment, when compliance to or refusal of this behavior explicitly or implicitly affects an individual employment (EEOC).
Sexual Harassment is a prohibited conduct of inappropriate behavior in which an individual makes unwelcome sexual favors, requests, or any other form of verbal or physical acts in a sexual nature in which it creates a hostile environment to work in. any form of harassment that hinders or interferes with an employee’s work should be taken seriously and will not be tolerated.
Sexual harassment in the workplace is a huge problem in recent history. It can happen to anyone and it can happen everywhere. It can affect all types of races, gender and age. Statistics today shows that more and more sexual harassment has become an issue due to the large number of cases presented. Mainstream media becomes consume covering sexual harassment because of the high profile cases. Sexual harassment becomes a topic on various TV shows, and on some major morning radio talk shows mostly everyday. Sexual harassment laws must be strengthened in order to fix what has become a serious problem today in the workplace.
Clark, C. S. (1991, August 9). Sexual harassment. CQ Researcher, 1, 537-560. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher
In today’s workplace, sexual harassment is a growing problem. The legal definition of sexual harassment is any unwelcome sexual advance or conduct on the job that creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment. Another definition is the making of unwanted and offensive sexual advances or of sexually offensive remarks or acts, especially by one in a superior or supervisory position. Women and men of all ages, backgrounds, races and experience are harassed on the job. Sexual harassment encountered in workplaces is a hazard across the world that reduces the quality of working life, jeopardizes the well-being of women and men, undermines gender equality and imposes costs on firms and organizations.