Employment Law Report: Analysis of Workplace Harassment Issues

This report examines the legal aspects of employment law, specifically focusing on workplace harassment. It defines harassment, including sexual harassment, and its impact on employees, emphasizing the importance of a safe and healthy working environment. The report outlines employer responsibilities, such as implementing anti-harassment policies and taking reasonable preventive measures. It details the essential elements of harassment claims, including the concept of a hostile working environment and the legal standards set by the Supreme Court. The report further explores employer liability based on the type of harassment and provides guidance on addressing inappropriate workplace conduct, including the importance of clear communication and employee handbooks. It emphasizes the necessity of sensitivity in the contemporary corporate world and the employer's role in protecting employees from disrespect and harm, whether intended or not, and provides a detailed analysis of the given scenario. The report concludes by highlighting the significance of addressing inappropriate situations promptly and effectively.

Running head: EMPLOYMENT LAW
Employment Law
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Harassment impedes the implementation of equal employment opportunity. It may have
an adverse impact on the employees by isolating and intimidating them from performing well
and ultimately compelling them to change the organization. Such conduct hinders the
performance as well as affects the overall image of the organization. Harassment affects other
protected classes apart from the most common form of harassment claims that are made on the
ground of sexual harassment (Walsh, 2015). Employees also become subjected to harassment
based on their nationality, race, beliefs, age and disabilities. Although there are various ways of
manifesting harassment but the basic nature and the liability of the employer remains to be same
irrespective of the involvement of the protected class.
Harassment or discrimination of sexual nature is known as sexual harassment or
discrimination that may take place between employees and employers or amongst the employees
within an organization. Employers are under legal obligation to ensure a safe and health working
environment within an organization. The employers must introduce workplace polices that
strictly prohibits any form of discrimination or harassments and such polices must include
reasonable prevention measures that would be enforced on complaints made by the employees
(Taylor & Emir, 2015).
The employers should develop a written policy that prevents sexual harassment and such
policy includes the equal opportunity policy of the company. The written policy should be a part
of the company handbook for the employees, which shall be signed and acknowledged by
individual employees, ensuring confirmation that they would comply with such policies. In order
to make a harassment claim, the employee or the aggrieved person must establish the essential
elements of harassment, which are as follows:

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 the employee was subjected to harassment on the grounds of the characteristics that
belongs to the protected class such as sex;
 the harassment was not welcome
 the act of harassment has given rise to employer’s liability;
 the harassment gave rise to tangible employment action or was serious or sufficiently
persistent to establish a hostile working environment;
According to the Supreme Court of the United States, a hostile environment must be serious
or continual in nature in order to claim violation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the
victim need not suffer a psychological harm to establish that the environment was hostile. An
‘unwelcome’ harassment arises when the complainant did not provoke such conduct and
regarded it as unwanted and offensive conduct (Dowling Jr, 2014). If the person is himself
involved in the conduct, the claim cannot succeed under such circumstances.
However, the law does not obliterate all joking, humors, flirting or impose any political
correctness in workplace. It neither mandates that the employees should always be treated in a
nice manner because when the working environment becomes abusive or hinders the abilities of
the employees to perform their work, it may give rise to discrimination at the workplace. Such
circumstances require the employers to initiate reasonable measures to prevent such
discriminatory conduct. The ground that gives rise to liability of the employer depends upon the
type of harassment that takes place at the workplace (Yamada, 2015). If a person who holds a
position that permits him to act on behalf of the company conducts the harassment, the company
shall be held liable irrespective of the type of harassment that had occurred in the organization.

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If the discrimination or harassment does not result in tangible employment actions, the
company can avert vicarious liability by establishing positive defenses. The employer exercises
reasonable care to prevent or rectify any harassment by introducing the anti-harassment policy.
The harassed employee has failed to take advantage of the anti-harassment policies introduced
by the company. They have not resorted to any preventive measures to avoid such discrimination
as was established in Hardage v CBS.
Employers should communicate and enforce policies that prohibit harassments and the
introduction of the anti-harassment policy demonstrates that employer exercised reasonable care
to prevent any discrimination or harassments within the workplace (Okechukwu et al., 2014). On
the facts here, the employers are heard making sexual jokes being enjoyed by all the employees.
Although humor in the workplace can be pleasant and healthy, nevertheless, jokes that are racist
or sexual in nature are strictly not allowed within an organization. Any discriminatory conduct
may be identifiable from the negative impact it had on the employee who is subjected to such
discriminatory conduct, however, there are certain conversations that is not considered as
offensive to the participants.
Under such circumstances, if such conversations makes me or any other employee
slightly uncomfortable, it is likely inappropriate and requires immediate intervention. However,
the follow-up of the employees would require careful consideration of the fact that each
employee is unique. That being said, it is essential to clearly communicate the organizational
guidelines, which would include the employee handbook that should be complied with by all the
employees. It is always safer to indulge in the one-to-one communication with the employees
who were involved in discussing sexual jokes to make them aware of the concerns (Walsh,
2015).

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This is because although it does not imply that their behavior is pardonable but at times,
the employees do not intend to offend anyone by their conduct or words. Nevertheless, the
employees should be informed that what they might perceive as a non-offending joke, it might
have a negative impact on some other employee (Player & Sperino, 2017). The unfailing
message would be that irrespective of intent, if any individual feels that a particular statement or
joke is inappropriate, then it shall be considered as one without any scope of any argument. In
the event, any of the employees complains about the sexual joke, it shall amount to harassment
only if the complainant establishes that she did not provoke the joke and that the joke is of a
serious nature, which establishes a hostile working environment.
In the contemporary corporate world, it has become more important than before to be
sensitive with respect to actions as perceived and comments made by others and act accordingly.
There is a fine line between excusing the employees for engaging in educational conversation
and ignoring conversations that may result in harassment. It is the responsibility of the employer
to ensure the employees are protected from disrespect and harm, whether intended or not. An
employer must deal with such inappropriate situation instead of ignoring the same.

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Reference list
Civil Rights Act
Dowling Jr, D. C. (2014). International Equal Employment Opportunity: How a US
Multinational Can Enforce Discrimination, Harassment, and Diversity Policies Across Its
Global Operations.
Hardage v CBS
Okechukwu, C. A., Souza, K., Davis, K. D., & de Castro, A. B. (2014). Discrimination,
harassment, abuse, and bullying in the workplace: Contribution of workplace injustice to
occupational health disparities. American journal of industrial medicine, 57(5), 573-586.
Player, M., & Sperino, S. (2017). Federal law of employment discrimination in a nutshell. West
Academic.
Taylor, S., & Emir, A. (2015). Employment law: an introduction. Oxford University Press, USA.
Walsh, D. J. (2015). Employment law for human resource practice. Nelson Education.
Yamada, D. C. (2015). Workplace bullying and the law: US legislative developments 2013-15.