Introduction
Sexual harassment can be defined as the unwelcome and unwanted sexual advances, sexual favors requests or any other physical or verbal conduct of a sexual nature that is directed to an individual. Sexual harassment is very common in work places.
According to the New York State Bar Association (2007), there are two common forms of sexual harassment the work place. These are the quid pro quo and the hostile environment sexual violence. In the quid pro quo type of sexual harassment, sexual advances are subjected to employees in exchange for various employment benefits. Salaries, promotions and continued employment are examples of employment benefits that are made contingent to the provision of sexual favors by the employee.
In the second type of sexual harassment in the work place, that is hostile environment, a supervisor or a co worker makes sexual comments or advances to a fellow employee, and while not actually affecting employment benefits, it renders the employee’s general working environment hostile and offensive (New York State Bar Association 2007). This type of harassment particularly occurs in an environment where such offensive sexual conducts are encouraged or tolerated.
Any type of sexual harassment is a clear violation of the law. However employers can actually be able to create a strong defensible position against accusations of sexual harassment in their work places. For example, if a particular organization has clearly established anti harassment sexual policy and the policy is effectively communicated to all organizational stakeholders including employees through training, then the employer can actually make a strong case in court and the judge might throw out the case. This type of defense is actually called the Ellen/Faragher defense, named after a famous sexual harassment court case that was heard in the United States Supreme Court in 1998 (New York State Bar Association 2007).
The person subjected to sexual harassment should immediately take action whenever he or she is subjected to any form sexual harassment. If it is from a fellow employee, the action should immediately report to the organization’s administration, for example the supervisor or the human resource manager. If the harassment is from the management itself, the employees can take the management and sue them on sexual harassment grounds.
References
New York State Bar Association. (2007). Sexual harassment in the work place: Its prevention and redress. Albany, N.Y.: New York State Bar Association.
