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Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that
violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Unwelcome
sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other
verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes
sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this
conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's
employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's
work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or
offensive 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.
It is
helpful for the victim to directly inform the harasser that
the conduct is unwelcome and must stop. The victim should
use any employer complaint mechanism or grievance system
available.
The
Supreme Court on June 26,1998, made employers more liable
for incidents of sexual harassment. Ruling on two sexual
harassment cases, Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, and
Burlington Industries Inc. v. Ellerth, the Supreme Court
basically stated that the employer is responsible for the
actions of the supervisor, even when the employer is unaware
of the supervisor’s behavior. An employer can no longer
claim that they did not know about the sexual harassment
because the employee did not inform them, nor can they claim
that they were unaware of the supervisor’s behavior.
The
Supreme Court stated that the court will no longer heavily
rely on the two different forms of sexual harassment, “quid
pro quo” and “hostile environment.” The Court called these
two forms of sexual harassment of “limited utility” in
assessing employer liability. As a result, an employee that
refuses the unwelcome sexual harassment of a supervisor, and
who suffers no adverse job consequences, can still bring a
sexual harassment lawsuit against her employer if the
employee can show they were discriminated by the sexual
content.
The
employee will not necessarily be required to show a loss of
advancement, retaliation, loss of income, or stress as they
once did under “quid pro quo” and hostile-environment. They
will need to show that the nature of the sexual content they
experienced caused them to experience discrimination.
FILING
A CHARGE – IT IS NECESSARY!
If you
believe you have been discriminated against by an employer,
labor union or employment agency when applying for a job or
while on the job because of your race, color, sex, religion,
national origin, age, or disability, or believe that you
have been discriminated against because of opposing a
prohibited practice or participating in an equal employment
opportunity matter, you may file a charge of discrimination
with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Charges
may be filed in person, by mail or by telephone by
contacting the nearest EEOC office. If there is not an EEOC
office in the immediate area, call toll free 800-669-4000 or
800-669-6820 (TDD) for more information. To avoid delay,
call or write beforehand if you need special assistance,
such as an interpreter, to file a charge.
There are
strict time frames in which charges of employment
discrimination must be filed. To preserve the ability of
EEOC to act on your behalf and to protect your right to file
a private lawsuit, should you ultimately need to, adhere to
the following guidelines when filing a charge.
Title VII
of the Civil Rights Act (Title VII) charges must be filed
with EEOC within 180 days of the alleged discriminatory act.
However, in states or localities where there is an
antidiscrimination law and an agency authorized to grant or
seek relief, a charge must be presented to that state or
local agency. Furthermore, in such jurisdictions, you may
file charges with EEOC within 300 days of the discriminatory
act, or 30 days after receiving notice that the state or
local agency has terminated its processing of the charge,
whichever is earlier. It is best to contact EEOC promptly
when discrimination is suspected. When charges or complaints
are filed beyond these time frames, you may not be able to
obtain any remedy.
For more
detailed information, please contact the EEOC office nearest
to you.
From The
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
For more
information please view
http://www.eeoc.gov
The law
office of Stewart Springer also handles racial and age
discrimination cases. Complete our Contact Form for
assistance.
I
represent clients in Birmingham, Alabama, and most clients
come from Alabama, al though we have helped clients
throughout the United States. My personal injury lawyers
receive many cases from the Alabama cities of Bessemer,
Mountain Brook, Homewood, Fairfield, Gadsden, Jasper,
Mobile, Montgomery, Huntsville, Greensboro, Fayette,
Pickens, Greene, Hale, and Tuscaloosa.
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