Sexual Harassment Law
Instructions:-
-Research Paper on Sexual Harassment Law in the Workplace
This paper is for a Business Law II course.
-Title: Sexual Harassment Law in the Workplace
-Minimum of 5 pages, not including reference page or cover page.
-Use at least 6 sources.
-Due date August 6th, 2017.
RESEARCH PAPER GUIDELINES: Here are Several Common Mistakes to Avoid:
1. Minimize spelling errors. Use software spell-check capabilities.
2. Grammatical errors. Remember things like parallelism, proper diction (their for possessive, not there, , etc.)…
3. Avoid improper sentence structure. Proof-read your written work for awkward expressions or meaningless phrases.
4. Insufficient paper length. Here, the length reference is Not to the actual paper (as in 8.5″ x 11″) because you will be handing the paper in electronically. The core content, however, should be of sufficient length to fill at least five (four in summer) 8.5 X 11 inch pages were you or I to print out the material (double-spaced). Use reasonable font size, such as 12 point or thereabouts, such as the size of typeface used in these instructions.
Title page, charts, tables, graphs, and references cited or bibliography page do NOT count as part of the page minimum, but do add interest, ease of interpretation and quality. ALL papers MUST have cites with full information provided, such as author, pages where quotes or paraphrases came from, publisher, editors) date of publication, and for websites provide webmaster, date you accessed the site and give the full web address (URL).
Do not simply list website, books etc without properly tying them to the proper places in your paper where they were used.
HERE ARE SEVERAL TIPS FOR IMPROVING YOUR PAPER:
1. Several references (cites) are indicative of more thorough research and shows support for your “argument” , position or conclusions in the paper. Check out this webpage for information on citation
methods: http://www.csulb.edu/library/eref/vref/style.html
2. Vary your material. Use a variety of sources in your paper. Don’t be one dimensional (using all books). Support your
position with cites from periodicals, trade journals, books, the internet, personal interviews (give persons’ title, employer,
and a contact email or phone number), government reports; industry directories; organization brochures; agency
pamphlets; etc. Learning how to use a brick & mortar (traditional physical) library in addition to the internet is a very employable skill.
3. Add some of your personal observations, analysis, and conclusions.
4. Keep the format neat, clear and organized. Include the paper’s Title on cover page and on page one. On the cover page, center your title, then below that, YOUR name, then below that, the course title and/or number …for example BU122-V1 and Date. Do not put my name on the paper. It’s your paper but the copy you submit is filed. You need to keep your own copy either on paper or on your pc (preferably both formats for safety).
5. Include unique features like charts, diagrams, tables, statistics or photos that help illustrate points made in the paper.
This type of enhancement should not clutter the page or distract but rather, make the material more easily grasped, and
more quickly understood.
6. Examples, stories or samples generally are helpful. Term Paper and research paper are used interchangeably here and are meant to refer to the same assignment.
HERE ARE SEVERAL TIPS FOR IMPROVING YOUR PAPER:
1. Several (meaning six or more) references (cites) are indicative of more thorough research and show support for your “argument” in the paper. Five or less equals a few and remember that five is the
absolute minimum number of references.
2. Vary your material. Use a variety of sources in your paper. Don’t be one dimensional (using all books). Support your
position with cites from periodicals, trade journals, books, the internet, personal interviews (give persons’ title, employer,
and a contact email or phone number), government reports; industry directories; organization brochures; agency
pamphlets; etc.
3. Add some of your personal observations, analysis, and conclusions. These show YOU are involved and have taken time for reflection and reaction to the subject.
4. Keep the format neat, clear and organized.
5. Include unique features like charts, diagrams, tables, statistics or photos that help illustrate points made in the paper.
This type of enhancement should not clutter the page or distract but rather, make the material more easily grasped, and
more quickly understood.
6. Give the title of the source, page numbers, publication dates and complete web address if an internet site is cited.
Solution
Sexual Harassment Law
Introduction
Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination. In the United States, issues to do with sexual harassment in the work place are handled by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). This is the federal agency charged with the mandate to “establish and administer guidelines and regulations addressing sexual harassment by enforcing the Title VII Civil Rights Act” (“HRG.Org Legal Resources”, n.d.).
Sexual harassment is generally described as including acts such as “unwelcome sexual advances, requests of sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature” (“Sexual Harassment”, 2017). These actions constitute sexual harassment when they explicitly or implicitly affect the individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with their performance at work, or creates and intimidating, hostile and offensive work environment. The definition of sexual harassment extends to include “offensive remarks made about a person’s sex”. The perpetrator of sexual harassment can either be male or female.
Sexual harassment in the workplace is classified under either of two forms which are quid pro quo sexual harassment and hostile work environment. Quid pro quo sexual harassment occurs when employment decisions are made based on the victim’s willingness to yield to the sexual harassment. Decisions include issues such as promotions or as conditions for employment. Hostile work environment sexual harassment occurs when sexual harassment makes it difficult for the employees to perform their duties. In this case the work environment becomes intimidating, hostile or offensive.
Issues to do with sexual harassment and any other form of discrimination are handled covered under the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and are found to be in direct violation of Section 703 of the Act. This is the piece of legislation that applies to employment practices in the United States. It applies to employers with 15 or more employees including state, local governments, labor organizations, as well as the Federal Government (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 1964). The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is charged with investigating and determining issues of sexual harassment in the workplace under the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The commission describes some of the circumstances that sexual harassment can occur in the work place as:
- The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex;
- The harasser can be the victim’s supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker or a non-employee;
- The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone else affected by the offensive conduct;
- Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim; and
- The harasser’s conduct may be unwelcome (“Sexual Harassment”, 2017).
Burden of Proof of Sexual Harassment
In sexual harassment in the workplace cases, the burden of proof falls on the plaintiff to show that sexual harassment did indeed happen. This means that the proof must meet a ‘subjective and objective standard”. The plaintiff must therefore show that the plaintiff must show that:
- He or she subjectively believed that the conduct was hostile, abusive, or offensive; and
- A reasonable person in the plaintiff’s position would objectively believe the conduct to be hostile, abusive, or offensive (“Sexual Harassment at Work – FindLaw”, 2015).
Legal Redress
There are legal options available to the victims of sexual harassment. The victim may file a suit under the U.S. civil rights act but the most natural progression of events is to report the matter to the EEOC first and seek legal redress if this option fails. The EOCC requires that there be written and documented evidence of the victim’s attempts at getting the harasser to stop the harassment.
Once sexual harassment occurs, the onus is on the victim to inform the harasser directly that the conduct is unwelcome and must stop using any form of grievance reporting mechanism that is available to them at the workplace. These records must be maintained as they form the basis of building the case for the EOCC when investigating and probably building a case against the harasser. The commission looks into “the circumstances, such as the nature of the sexual advances, and the context in which the alleged incidents occurred. A determination of the allegations in any of the sexual harassment cases is made from the facts on a case-by-case basis.”
If the company has a defined sexual harassment policy in place, the process of resolution of the complaint is through the enactment of the policy before escalation of the issue to the EEOC. The EEOC offers alternative dispute resolution methods without necessarily resulting in legal recourse. Should the EEOC be unable to solve the dispute, it issues the plaintiff with a legal document called a “right-to-sue” letter that allows them to take up a civil suit against the defendant (“HRG.Org Legal Resources”, n.d.).
Section 703 of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees from retaliation in the event that they report cases of sexual harassment. Retaliation in this case would be in the form of termination of the victim from the work place and unfair treatment of the victim at the workplace. This protection is given if a victim, “files a discrimination charge, testifies or participates in any way in an investigation, proceeding or litigation under Title VII (“Sexual Harassment”, 2017).
The EEOC may decide in favor of the victim if indeed sexual harassment was proven to either:
- Reinstate the victim to their job if they had been put out of the employer’s service on account of the sexual harassment complaint;
- Grant a promotion if it is proven that one was unfairly denied on account of the sexual harassment;
- Grant and award of lost wages and other job-related losses if it is indeed proved that indeed these were lost on account of the sexual harassment; or
- Grant an injunctive relief, which instructs the harasser to immediately cease all forms of sexual harassment, “to create a comprehensive written sexual harassment policy and to pay the employee’s attorney fees” (“HRG.Org Legal Resources”, n.d.).
Prevalence of Sexual Harassment
A survey conducted by the Trade Union Congress in the United Kingdom on 1500 women in the workforce in 2016 found that 52% of the women had faced sexual harassment, a third were victims of unwanted jokes and a quarter had experienced unwanted touching. The survey also found that nine out of 10 perpetrators were male and nearly one in five women said that the male was their supervisor or someone in direct authority over them (“Half of women ‘sexually harassed at work’ – TUC survey – BBC News”, 2016).
The survey also found that 76% of the women who had experienced sexual harassment had not reported it to their employer. They cited fear that the complaint would affect their relationships at work (28%), fear of affecting their career prospects (15%), fear that they would not be believed and the harassment would not be taken seriously (24%) and embarrassment (20%) as the reasons that they did not report the harassment (“Half of women ‘sexually harassed at work’ – TUC survey – BBC News”, 2016).
According to Chalabi (2016), more than half of the sexual harassment cases reported to the EEOC reported in no charges. The cases (52%) of them were dismissed on the grounds that there was “no reasonable cause to believe that the discrimination occurred”. Other cases received outcomes including “negotiated settlements, withdrawal of claims but with benefits, successful conciliations and unsuccessful conciliations” (Chalabi, 2016). Also, from data collected from the EEOC, claims filed from men has increased over time.
Evidence from a survey conducted by Hersch (2015), the profile of victims in most sexual harassment cases is pretty standard. The victims tend to be much younger, between 24 to 44 years old, they hold lower positions in the organizations for which they work, are supervised by members of the opposite sex and in the case of female victims, they work mostly in male- dominated occupations. The study also reveals that sexual harassment is higher among immigrant victims and in the military.
Conclusion
Cases of sexual harassment are still prevalent in the work place. Most instances go unreported because of the fears and stigma associated with the reporting. This is coupled with the fact that according to the laws in place for the prevention of sexual harassment, the proof is both subjective and objective and the reception of the facts depends on how they are presented. It is however difficult to develop a clear cut criteria for determining sexual harassment because of the nature of the harassment itself and the sensitivity associated with it.
This type of harassment in the workplace would be reduced if the companies and the employer put more stringent measures against it and actively enforced the regulations that they set in place against the harassment. This would ensure that employees in the organization do not feel that they may be able to get away with them.
References
Chalabi, M. (2016). Sexual harassment at work: more than half of claims in US result in no charge. the Guardian. Retrieved 3 August 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jul/22/sexual-harassment-at-work-roger-ailes-fox-news
Half of women ‘sexually harassed at work’ – TUC survey – BBC News. (2016). BBC News. Retrieved 3 August 2017 http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37025554
Hersch, J. (2015). Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Despite being illegal, costly, and an affront to dignity, sexual harassment is pervasive and challenging to eliminate. World of Labor: Evidence-based Policy Making.
HRG.Org Legal Resources. Hg.org. Retrieved 2 August 2017, from https://www.hg.org/sexual-harassment-law.html
Sexual Harassment at Work – FindLaw. (2015). Findlaw. Retrieved 3 August 2017, http://employment.findlaw.com/employment-discrimination/sexual-harassment-at-work.html
Sexual Harassment. (2017). Eeoc.gov. Retrieved 3 August 2017 https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/sexual_harassment.cfm
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (1964). Constitution. United States.