What is harassment?

Under the American laws, harassment is described as any repeated or uninvited contact in the workplace that serves no useful purpose to the employee beyond creating alarm, annoyance, or emotional distress.

Harassment is any form of unlawful discrimination in the workplace that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the ‘Age Discrimination’ in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).

Harassment, as per the American laws, is defined as unlawful behaviour or offense in the workplace with an individual employee or a group hired by an American employer based on age (Older age beginning at 40), colour, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity, genetic information, pregnancy status, nationality/origin, and disability.

When does harassment become an unlawful/offensive act?

• Offensive or unlawful conduct, according to American laws, may include but is not limited to offensive jokes, gender discrimination, graffiti, slurs, epithets or name-calling, derogatory comments, physical assaults or threats, intimidation, ridicule, or mockery based on gender, race, ethnicity, age, or others, insults, verbal put-downs, vulgar or obscene objects or pictures, and interference with work performance.
• Sexual harassment in the workplace (Unwelcome and unlawful sexual advances towards the same or other gender, requests for sexual favours, employment denied for retaliating to sexual misconduct, and other conduct of sexual nature)
• Putting up with the unlawful and offensive conduct at the workplace becomes a requirement of continued employment.
• The misconduct is severe or prevalent enough to create a hostile, intimidating workplace or abusive work environment for any reasonable person employed by the American firm. The harassment results in an adverse employment decision such as firing or demotion of the employee.

Harassment Circumstances

Unlawful harassment towards an employee in the workplace can occur under but is not limited to any of the following circumstances:

• The harasser can be the employee’s supervisor or employer, a supervisor in any department of the organization, an agent of the employer, a co-worker/colleague, or even a non-employee.
• The victim need not necessarily be the person harassed but any individual employed by an American firm affected by the misconduct.
• Unlawful harassment of an employee may occur without economic injury to the victim.

Anti-Discrimination law

The US anti-discrimination law enforced by EEOC(Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) prohibits unlawful discrimination, gender, age, colour, race, or otherwise, towards an employee at the workplace in every aspect of employment.

Anti-discrimination law also aims to prevent unlawful harassment and protect employees and individuals in the workplace who file a discrimination charge, testify, or participate in any way in an investigation, proceeding, or lawsuit under these laws.

The law also safeguards any employee or individual who files a discrimination charge, opposing unlawful employment practices that they reasonably believe discriminate against individuals or employees based on gender, colour, race, or ethnicity, to name a few.

Employer compliance with the anti-harassment law

Every employer can abide by the anti-harassment law by taking the following actions:

• Provide mandatory employee training on the Prevention of harassment.
• Enact and distribute detailed policies on anti-harassment to all employees in the workplace.
• Make sure all employees, irrespective of their gender, are aware of their course of action when they encounter harassment at the workplace (where to report the incident, to whom, and within how many days)
• Advertise several versions of an anti-harassment policy to all employees, irrespective of their gender, in different states to comply with state law.
• Include the anti-harassment policy in the company handbook or employee manual applicable to all employees.

Where and how can an employee report a harassment incident?

Every employee, whatever race, gender, colour, age, or ethnicity, is entitled to a harassment-free workplace, and every employer must provide a safe work environment. If encountered with a harassment incident at the workplace, an employee could use various channels to report the incident.

• To immediate, second-level, or any other supervisor within or outside their chain of command.
• Their bureau-level servicing human resources office
• EEO(Equal Employment Opportunity) Office that services their bureau.

Harassment laws across various states in the US

Several states across the US have mandated that anti-harassment policies be included in the employee’s handbook. Like the mandatory anti-harassment training requirements, each state in America imposes its own essential terms and local content to tackle harassment behaviors.

Employers have to abide by their respective state laws in reporting and handling workplace harassment.

States that mandate anti-harassment training for employees in America:

California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois(For bars and restaurants), Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington(for specific industries).

States that do not mandate but recommend anti-harassment training:

Federal Law Jurisdiction, Colorado, Iowa, New Jersey, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin.

What can an employer do to prevent harassment incidents at the workplace?

• Designate at least one person outside an employee’s chain of command to receive harassment complaints.
• Permit employees to report harassment to any manager in the unit. If possible, provide hotline numbers to report incidents.
• Explain anti-harassment laws and the behaviors that are considered unlawful or harassment.
• Ensure confidentiality of employees who report incidents, irrespective of their gender.
• Convey that an employee will not be punished for reporting a harassment incident or participating in a harassment investigation or lawsuit.
• Assure appropriate and timely responses from HR personnel for any harassment complaints.
• Provide thorough, prompt, and unbiased investigation for harassment complaints.
• Notify employees who file harassment complaints about the status of their complaints, the investigation processes, the results of the investigation, and the action taken.
• Explain to employees the consequences of harassment incidents.
• Additionally, explain to employees the consequences of malicious complaints.

For more information on Prevention of Sexual Harassment(POSH), EAP (Employee Assistance Programs), D&I (Diversity and Inclusion) offerings by CecureUs , please contact connect@cecureus.com or call us at +91-7200500221