Business: current legal issues of Human Resource Management
Sexual harassment is sexual discrimination in the workplaces. The elements of sexual harassment include requests for sex favors, sexual conducts directed to certain individuals cause of their gender and unwelcome sexual advances.
When an employee reports that they are facing sexual harassment at the workplace, the employer is supposed to launch an investigation into the matter. An investigation should begin using a couple of processes by the employer in trying to reach the bottom of the matter. For Elora Jean, First, the parties, the victim and the harasser, should be questioned concerning the matter. First thing the investigator should do is question the victim and document the initial report if the company has no form. It is very important for these records to be documented as they are required by the law and will help the employer prove that he/she responded to the complaint (Boland, 2005). Some of the details that the interviewer should obtain from the victim are their position in the workplace, whether there was any relationship in the past between the victim and the harasser and the working relationship between the two.
The interviewer then questions the harasser to obtain their side of the story. The interviewer should be neutral. Interviewer should first obtain a response to the accusations against the harasser, which sometimes can be denied. The harasser should answer some questions such as what happened on the fore mentioned day of harassment, why they think the victim would make such a report, and if there is anybody else with additional information to support his side among many others. The investigator should then question other people such as other employees to gather more supporting evidence. After interviewing the victim and the harasser, other employees can be questioned to obtain additional information. The additional information might prove helpful in the case. Thirdly, the investigator should secure various records such as work logs and personnel files. Detailing all the found information from the interviews and any other additional information will be important for Elora Jean & Co as it will help them in defending their case. With the information, they can prove that they carried the necessary investigation.
If harassment is proven to have taken place and Elora Jean & Co did not do anything to prevent it from happening since the employee had reported the matter, then the company will be found liable by the EEOC’S. Achampong states that EEOC’s Guidelines impose liability if the employer had any knowledge or should have had any knowledge on the issue and failed to take any immediate and necessary corrective action (Achampong, 1999). Elora Jean & Co can consider mediation or litigation. In the mediation, the company will appoint a third party referred to as a mediator to help both parties resolve their differences. It is not the duty of the mediator to decide how to resolve the disputes, but he/she should help the parties come up with agreements that satisfy them both. Mediation has its importance in that for one, the control of the outcome is usually in the hands of the parties rather than a judge or a jury. The process is also less expensive and takes less time than going through the court process. Another importance of the process is that the disputing parties are always free to come up with their own solutions to end their dispute. Some of the options they can offer in the solutions cannot be met by the court, making the process much better. In the litigation, both parties will require to hire lawyers. Elora Jean & Co will need a lawyer to shield them from the fact that they never took any immediate action when their employer reported the matter. Litigation is also a time consuming process, unpredictable as the judge and the jury has to make the final decision and emotionally draining for all the parties. Elora Jean & Co should consider mediation to resolve the dispute on the grounds that mediation is a bit confidential, less time consuming and cheaper than litigation.
A sexual harassment policy should include the definition of what sexual harassment is and examples or illustrations of what sexual harassment in the workplace entails. The policy should also show the employees that they have the right to report any sexual harassment they face and the process they should follow in reporting the matter. The policy should have a clause that states the matter is confidential as most of the employees might feel embarrassed about the issue. The policy should also have some training information that should be an active program and not a policy.
One of the recent sexual harassment cases involves Hooters restaurant and an employee that had been sued for sexual harassment by a waitress. The waitress, 24 years old Sara Steinhoff claimed that she was sexually harassed by the managers while was working in their restaurant in 1996- 1997 October. A federal jury found the management guilty, and the restaurant was ordered to pay $275, 000 to the former waitress for damages (Abcnews, 2014).
According to the amendments, parties can obtain jury trials. The parties are also in a position to recover compensations and punitive damages. The act has in place the amount of damages that can be awarded for the pecuniary pain, losses and suffering and punitive damages that are based on the size of the employer. If intentional employment discrimination is proven in regards to one of the clauses of the Act, compensatory and punitive damages and jury trials are allowed. The impact of this on Elora Jean & Co is that they stand facing trail and payment of compensation and punitive damages to their harassed employees as they were aware of the matter but ignored and never did anything about it. Another impact of the Act is that it provided that if the plaintiff can prove that the harassment was a motivating factor for the employment then the employer is liable. The Act also provided employment discrimination protection for employees. Another impact of the amendments on part of the employers is that it got to affect employers in America and employers controlled by America though they operate abroad. Through this amendment, employees that are abroad but their employers are under America, get a chance to file a lawsuit against their employers, concerning any discrimination that they face in the workplace.
The owner should provide a statement on his/ her side of the story and provide all necessary information concerning the matter. The own should also allow on-site visit and allow other employees to be interviewed.
References
Abcnews. (2014, July 21). Retrieved from <http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96429>
Achampong, F. (1990).Workplace sexual harassment law, principles, landmark developments,
and framework for effective risk management. Westport, Conn.: Quorum Books.
Boland, M. L. (2005). Sexual harassment in the workplace. Naperville, Ill.: Sphinx Pub..
