Sexual harassment

C H A P T e r

Sexual Harassment

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The Effects of Sexual Harassment ...................................................................................................................311 Loss of Job ..........................................................................................................................................................311 Loss of Wages and OtherBenefits....................................................................................................... 313 Forced Reassignment ................................................................................................................................. 313 Constructive Discharge............................................................................................................................. 313 Penalties for Retaliation ............................................................................................................................ 313 Personal Injuries ............................................................................................................................................ 313 Federal Law................................................................................................................................................................ 315 Who Is Covered ............................................................................................................................................. 316 Remedies Available...................................................................................................................................... 316 State Laws ................................................................................................................................................................... 316 Taking Steps to End Sexual Harassment .................................................................................................... 316 Confront the Harasser............................................................................................................................... 317 Use a Company Complaint Procedure ............................................................................................. 318 File a Complaint With a Government Agency ............................................................................. 318 File a Private Lawsuit.................................................................................................................................. 319 File a Tort Lawsuit ........................................................................................................................................ 319 Where to Get More Information................................................................................................................... 320

310 | Your rights in the Workplace

n legal terms, sexual harassment is any unwelcome sexual conduct on the job that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment. Simply put, sexual harassment is any offensive conduct related to an employee’s gender that a reasonable woman or man should not have to endure while at work. The laws prohibitingsexual harassment are gender blind; they prevent women from harassing men, men from harassing other men, and women from harassing other women. However, the vast majority of cases involve women workers who have been harassed by male coworkers or supervisors. The forms that sexual harassment can take range from offensive sexual innuendoes to physical encounters, from misogynist humor to rape. Anemployee may be confronted with sexual demands to keep a job or obtain a promotion, known in the earliest cases as a quid pro quo form of harassment—literally, do this for that. In other forms of sexual harassment, the threat—or the trade-off—is not as blunt. When sexually offensive conduct permeates the workplace, an employee may find it difficult or unpleasant to work there. The term hostile...