Every day millions of workers in the United States come and leave to work each day. Every day we can all relate to understanding our jobs, roles, and responsibilities, but do we understand the law? Especially when work laws are violated and it can start to affect our work environment. I am speaking to you about Sexual Harassment. It can happen to anyone and practically it can happen anywhere. So what is sexual harassment?
The law states: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids any sex discrimination in all aspects of employment. “The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) defines sexual harassment as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when: submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of employment; submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual; or such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual 's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment” (Brady)
There are two different types of sexual harassment. These include quid pro quo and hostile environment harassment. The first type of harassment which is Quid pro quo harassment basically means I get this for that. It’s an exchange of some sort of benefit for a sexual favor. “Employers are held strictly liable for the quid pro quo harassment behavior of the supervisors/mangers regardless of whether the employer knew of the behavior or should have known” (Sweeney). Hostile environment harassment is the second type of sexual harassment. “According to the United States Supreme Court, hostile environment sexual harassment exists when the workplace is permeated with "discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult, that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim 's
Citations: 1. A. James Barnes, Terry Morehead Dworkin, Eric L. Richards. Law for Business, Ninth Edition. New York, NY. McGraw-Hills. 2006. 2. Brady, T 6. Sweeney, M (1992, December). Sexual harassment in the workplace: A claim perspective and Interpretation. Retrieved May 1, 2012, from ABI/INFORM Global