|
When the Line Is Crossed
On the lookout for sexual harassment at FECs
by Mike Bederka
Incessant leering. Tasteless text messages. Off-color jokes. Unwelcome advances. Sexual harassment can take many forms at a family entertainment center (FEC), and now more than ever, managers must be prepared to handle such serious situations.
“New media has changed the game dramatically,” says Ron Chapman Jr., an employment lawyer with Ogletree Deakins in Dallas, Texas. “It’s very rare for a complaint of sexual harassment to follow the stereotypical model of a female subordinate complaining about a male supervisor who promised the female a raise or some other job-related benefit [as part of an inappropriate relationship]. These days, the accusations are more subtle—an e-mail containing an inappropriate ‘joke,’ a text message that is too informal, a tweet or Facebook posting about a coworker. Managers definitely need to be trained on how to spot misbehavior and how to respond to it.”
Policies and Training
To help prevent sexual harassment incidents from occurring, FECs should keep a strict policy in place, says Eric B. Meyer, an attorney in the labor and employment group at Dilworth Paxson LLP in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At a minimum, the policy should:
- be in writing.
- be communicated to employees.
- incorporate, by reference, other applicable employer policies (e.g., computer use, social media, cell phone).
- be easy to understand and avoid legalese.
- define clearly what is and isn’t tolerated as workplace behavior.
- give clear examples of sexual harassment.
- inform employees how (and to whom) to report claims of sexual harassment.
describe the investigation process.
- warn employees that violation of the policy may result in discipline up to and including termination.
- be updated to stay current with changes in the law. Ideally, a trained outside employment lawyer should conduct separate sexual harassment training for employees and supervisors, Meyer says. Companies generally should provide training to employees as part of orientation and retrain their employees at least once every other year.
“A good training program negates any later argument from an employee that the employee did not know how to report claims of sexual harassment,” he says. “And when employees report claims of sexual harassment, the employer has the opportunity to take reasonable steps designed to curtail the harassment. If the employer takes these steps, more often than not, it can defend a sexual harassment lawsuit successfully.”
Keeping employees’ attention during training can be a challenge, though. To help prevent people from zoning out or not taking it seriously, Meyer keeps the session interactive. He’ll encourage class participation and liven things up with clips from “The Office” and “Saturday Night Live.”
Michael McAuliffe Miller works with clients on programs that translate the training into a medium that Generation Y workers will recognize. “For instance, we have used a sexual harassment online quiz designed to look like a game show,” says Miller, a member in the labor and employment practice group of Eckert Seamans in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be highly polished and it can be funny so long as it delivers the necessary data.”
Technology Trends
Managers should resist the temptation to scope out employees’ social media pages for possible sexual harassment cases, advises Melissa Fleischer, president of HR Learning Center LLC in Rye, New York. “When managers do this, they learn personal information about employees that they don’t want to know—for example, whether an employee is pregnant or gay,” she says. If a staff member is fired, he can allege the manager made the decision based on these details, which would be in violation of federal and state employment discrimination laws, Fleischer says.
To avoid such allegations but still be proactive, managers should put together well-drafted policies that prohibit harassment in all forms of social media, such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and blogs.
Taking Action
If a sexual harassment incident does occur, the most important thing is that a staffer feels safe to come forward with a complaint, stresses Sunu P. Chandy, a senior trial attorney with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in New York. “This can be encouraged by making sure employees know what’s appropriate behavior in the workplace, that they know how to make a complaint, that they are reassured the complaint will be investigated, and reassured that the employee will not face any form of retaliation from the employer,” she says.
Most employers use a range of disciplinary measures— from verbal or written warnings to suspensions to termination— to ensure the work force knows harassment and discrimination will be taken seriously, Chandy says.
“Of course, some incidents, such as a complaint of sexual assault, may warrant immediate termination or at least suspension pending an investigation,” she says. “Some physical violations do also violate criminal law, and an employee or employer could involve the police to obtain an order of protection or pursue other kinds of criminal actions.”
Contact Contributing Editor Mike Bederka at mbederka@IAAPA.org.
Ban Workplace Romance?
Workplace romances are “fertile breeding grounds” for harassment complaints, especially where a manager is dating a subordinate employee and the relationship sours, says Jonathan Yarbrough, partner with labor and employment law firm Constangy, Brooks, and Smith in Asheville, North Carolina.
“Employers can ban such relationships outright if they so choose,” he says. “Another option is a ‘love contract,’ where the parties disclose the relationship and basically enter into a contract that reinforces the employer’s harassment policy. Many staff members would balk at this, particularly those employees whose workplace romances are actually illicit affairs.”
Banning workplace relationships is often ineffective and may only lead to violations of the policy, adds Andrew M. Slobodien, a partner in the labor and employment practice groups of Wildman, Harrold, Allen, and Dixon LLP in Chicago: “Never implement a policy that is likely to be broken.” |
|
