Not for Women Only

Harassment: About Power, Not Sex

New guidelines on sexual harassment in the workplace put employers on notice that they may be liable.

Shunice Reese has worked in various government jobs in the District of Columbia since the 1980s, but she still remembers one supervisor the female workers “kept hoping would retire.”

He targeted the quiet women, “the ones who wouldn’t rock the boat and complain,” says Reese, a member of AFSCME Local 2091 and member of Council 20’s executive board. He would make comments about their bodies, or overt sexual suggestions. “And he was always careful to do it when there was no one else around.”

Today employers who tolerate one-on-one sexual harassment of employees or the locker-room mentality of bawdy calendars and raunchy sex jokes may have to be more careful about cleaning up their act.

A CLEAR MESSAGE. Last year the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, following several significant Supreme Court decisions, issued guidelines on the liability of employers in harassment cases.

The message was clear: It’s the employer’s responsibility to provide a workplace free from sexual harassment, and now it will be easier to hold employers accountable if they don’t.

The cases held that when an employee refused unwelcome and threatening advances from a boss, and the refusal did not result in a “negative employment action” (e.g., demotion, discharge or undesirable reassignment), the employer could defend itself if it could prove it had taken steps to prevent and promptly correct the harassment.

The steps could include adopting an effective complaint procedure or proving the employee failed to take advantage of the employer’s procedures.

When harassment by a supervisor resulted in the employee’s firing, demotion or reassignment, the court came down hard on the employer. That is, it couldn’t defend itself by trying to prove it took steps to prevent or correct the harassment, or that the employee didn’t take advantage of preventive or corrective opportunities.

The message is that the ground rules must be spelled out clearly and that the employer must take complaints about harassment very seriously.

The EEOC guidelines recommend that employers write, circulate and enforce a policy on sexual and other forms of harassment and make it plain that whistle-blowers won’t be punished.

The policy should also establish a person for an employee to complain to in addition to an immediate supervisor.

THE ‘GOOD OLD BOYS.’ Hettie Hume, a member of the Alaska State Employees Association/AFSCME Local 52, knows that harassment is more about power than sex. She was part of a class action grievance filed by women employees in the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Northern Region, in 1996.

The group grievance followed an arbitration decision on an individual grievance filed by a female employee, a Ph.D. in physics and engineering, who was passed over for promotion. Both grievances noted the climate of crude jokes and intimidation in which the women worked, which Hume wryly refers to as the “good old boys’ club.”

Their complaints ranged from inappropriate comments and fondling to one woman who reported being molested. The crude remarks and horseplay were never discouraged, Hume remembers. In fact, “the young guys coming up through the ranks were being groomed” for the club.

The arbitration resulted in one of the offenders being removed from his position and others disciplined. The engineer won her promotion, and the class action grievance resulted in changes to the contract that attempted to improve the workplace atmosphere.

CHANGING THE CULTURE. “The union has taken a real strong stance for us” on the question of sexual harassment, Hume says.

Actually, AFSCME has been providing training on handling sexual harassment complaints for more than 20 years. As management becomes sensitized to the problem, the union is participating in joint labor/management training sessions.

For employees who feel they’re being sexually harassed, AFSCME recommends the following:

• Address the situation that makes you uncomfortable as soon as possible, whether it be dirty jokes told in your presence or actions that you find offensive.
• Be specific, clear and direct in expressing your wish that the unwelcome behavior stop.
• If it persists, document the incidents and contact your steward, who can put management on notice of the harassment, file a grievance or complaint, or take other appropriate action.

But in case you think sexual harassment only affects women, think again. According to the EEOC, some 12 percent of sexual harassment cases filed by employees are lodged by men.

As the union and workers continue to stand up for dignity in the workplace, sexual harassment has emerged as a problem that’s “not for women only.”

By Chris Dodd