Case 2 - EEOC- Hostile Harassment- Sexual Harassment

Background of Case

The ABC technologies, microchips manufacturing firm hires Miss Red as a quality control engineer trainee in March 2004 and she was assigned to work with four male quality control engineers.  During the training period Miss Red continuously ask the assistance from the male engineers even for a simple tasks and four male engineer felt she was taking too much of their time and were bothered by her queries. So the four male engineers ask her to refer the manual for instructions rather than asking questions. Miss Red felt uncomfortable working in QA department and went to Engineer Marvin Cruz, the head of quality assurance department for help. But there as well she was told to follow manual of operations. At this point she felt she was discriminated and decided to file a case of discrimination, sexual harassment and hostile work environment against the four engineers and the company. HR manager tried to solve the case by appointing Miss Red a junior process engineer on a permanent basis,  she instead filed another case of harassment against Engineer Cruz stating the position was given to her to downplay her initial case.

What is hostile work environment and What does EEOC says about it?

Hostile work environment is a form of harassment. It is demonstrated by such severe and pervasive conduct that permeates the work environment interferes with an employee’s ability to perform his/her job.

According to Equal Employment Opportunity Committee, “Harassment is unwelcome conduct that is based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy,) national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information”. Harassment becomes unlawful where:

1)      Enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of continued employment

2)      The conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile or abusive.

Violation committed or Not?

Before coming to any decision let’s look the case in depth, how much Miss Red was affected and how severe was harassment or is the amount of harassment she experienced is sufficient to be actionable in court.  According to EEOC, Petty slights, annoyances and isolated incidents will not rise to the level of illegality. To be unlawful, the conduct must create a work environment that would be intimidating, hostile or offensive to reasonable people.

I do not think Miss Red was severely harassed. The four engineer were uncooperative with her because she was taking too much of their work time for even a simple tasks. And after all, at the end of day there is a task to be finished. They just cannot give their most of the time to assist Miss Red. I think Miss Red should have put more effort to learn the work rather than ask the assistance from the Engineers for simple tasks.

I do not think there was a violation committed in this case.

If I were Engineer Marvin Cruz, I would have assigned her to work under my supervision for at least one month and evaluate her performance over that period. For one month of period I would assist her and help her to understand the procedure and all. It is ultimately my responsible as a head of quality assurance department to help the employee and trainee if they experienced any difficulty at work.

Employer Liability for Harassment

According to EEOC, the employer is automatically liable for harassment by a supervisor that results in a negative employment action such as termination, failure or hire and loss of wages. If the supervisor’s harassment results in a hostile work environment, the employer can avoid liability only if it can prove that:

1)      It reasonably  tried to prevent and promptly correct the harassing behavior

2)      The employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer.

Here in this case, HR manager of ABC technologies try to avoid the liability by offering Miss Red a permanent job offer as the position of junior process engineer.

If I was HR manger I would have investigate the case. I think the issues and potential liability related to claims of hostile environment is complex and shouldn’t be ignored. To minimize the misapplication of the allegation and the risk for actual liability, employers should implement clear policies against harassment and discrimination, establish, follow and enforce protocols and procedures for reporting and investigating complaints and make a good faith effort to swiftly and adequately respond to and resolve any substantiated complaints.

Preventing the occurrences

1)      Implement an effective anti-harassment policy: The first and most important step is to establish, disseminate and enforce an anti harassment policy to provide a means to address alleged misconduct.

2)      Adequately train all employees on harassment: A very simple way for an employer to protect the company from liability is to provide training on the various forms of harassment. The training should be very detailed and complete with role-playing and other ways to provide real life examples of situations that may be considered harassment to employees.

3)      Establish accessible reporting mechanisms for employee complaints.

4)      Take prompt remedial action to address concerns of harassment.

  

References

EEOC rules stating Harassment, Retrieved from

  http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/harassment.cfm (9/15/2015)

Practical suggestions for preventing a Hostile Work Environment Based on Profane

http://www.troutmansanders.com/lespring2010-03/ (9/15/2015)