Harassment: Threats or Demanding to Have Sexual Conduct - Research Paper Example

Introduction: The Commission on civil rights of United States has been created by the Civil rights Act of 1957. It is an independent, bipartisan agency of the executive branch of the Federal Government. According to the terms of the Act, as amended, the Commission is charged with a series of duties pertaining to denials to equal protection of the laws based on race, color, sex, age, individual being handicapped or not, religion or national origin, or in the administration of justice, investigation of individual discriminatory denials of right to vote, study of legal developments with respect to denials of equal protection of the law, appraisal of the laws and policies of the United States with respect to denials of equal protection of the law, maintenance of a national clearing house for information respecting denials of equal protection of the law and investigation of patterns or practices of fraud or discrimination in the conduct of Federal elections. (The Masschusetts Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights pp. 3-5) What is sexual harassment in employment? Sexual harassment is a situation where an unwanted attention of a sexual behavior occurs in the process of working or seeking work and hence threatens the ability of an individual to earn a living. . (The Masschusetts Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights pp. 3-5) Is it a serious problem? Harassment can be with different behaviors like passing distracting or annoying comments to intimidate, giving threats or demanding to have sexual conduct. The most troublesome and serious situation happens when an employee faces a supervisor who makes sexual demands accompanied by job-related threats. Majority of the people thinks that such situation becomes very critical to handle. Such situations especially happen where jobs are scarce and when the employee has few job skills. (Conte pp. 6-10) However, less unmitigated forms of harassment may also have the serious effect of threatening the income of an employee or his or her career prospects. Acts that may appear to be disturbing and distracting from the victim's perspective, may sufficiently lead to a fall in work performance or might even try to take majority day offs in order to ignore such situations. (Conte pp. 6-7) Who are the victims? According to most of the studies, this kind of problem of encountering sex related threats demands, and annoying behavior are being mostly faced by women. This is understood because it is very consistent with the way power is distributed in the workplace as women workers are typically at the bottom of the job ladder, and those in supervisory positions are mostly males. (Boland p. 12-18) There are many variations to these work places like professors happen to be mostly male, are in a position to take advantage of students, female enrollment in skilled trades apprenticeships is increasing, but instructors, union officials, and foremen are almost invariably male and even female professionals employed by corporations, government agencies, and other large institutions are almost always responsible to male executives. Those who claim that there are places where males get harassed by females do have a point and must get equal consideration, but very few females are in a position to take advantage over males in the workplace. Sexual overtures from the employee to the supervisor hardly entail the threat associated with the reverse. (Boland p. 12-18) Why is this issue receiving so much attention recently? Sexual harassment in the workplace is a very old problem. Women have put up with it in the past because there has been no simple escape. However, recent increases in the number of women in the labor force have made us aware of a whole range of ignored issues of concern to working women—harassment, child care, comparable worth, and others. In the last few years, court decisions and guidelines of Federal and State agencies have made it clear that sexual harassment is illegal and has defined the responsibilities of employers in dealing with this problem. It seems likely that harassment, opposition to it, and retaliation for that opposition will become even more common feature of work life as economic necessity forces ever greater number of women into the labor force and as competition for jobs becomes more severe and critical. (Muller pp. 165-170) Why is this the employer's problem—and not just the victim's? The employer of an organization may think that it is the responsibility of the victim to fight or evade harassment. This has ignored many factors that prevent such resistance: • The fear to retaliate, often in the positions held by women which is less secured • The lack of an internal complaint procedure or the inability of an employee to secure private legal assistance • Having less skill and experience, hence finding another job is an unrealistic alternative • The fear of having a bad reputation and being misunderstood by all • The fear that the victim will be branded as a troublemaker • The consideration of the harasser's family and the high possibility of losing his job (Muller pp. 165-170) The guidelines of agencies and court decisions assign important responsibilities to employers to prevent harassment from occurring, since employers are in an ideal position to provide the support and options to employees who need to confront those who harass them. Furthermore, the employer will always try to have a trouble free working environment. The existence of sexual harassment often causes tension and turmoil in the workplace. In addition to the likelihood of a negative work environment, sexual harassment may result in two other problems for employers, one is the additional personnel costs and another is the potential legal liability. (Muller pp. 165-170) Federal Law and EEOC Guidelines The Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e) is the most important Federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in employment. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, also called as EEOC, is the Federal agency charged with the responsibility of enforcing Title VII. On November 10, 1980, the EEOC issued guidelines on sexual harassment in the workplace (29 CFR 1604.11) embodying the position that sexual harassment constitutes a violation under section 703 of Title VII. As per the guidelines, the individual holding the administrative position of the EEOC will take in investigating complaints of sexual harassment. These guidelines are not law, but courts are entitled to give these guidelines major importance and focus while deciding cases. (Boland p. 12-18) How to deal with sexual harassment in an business organization: Adopt a Clear Sexual Harassment Policy Organizations should strive to create a safe respectful working environment for all its staff. All organizations must have a general policy of norms and etiquette about how all employees should behave in the workplace, but there should be a specific sexual harassment policy in order to communicate clearly to the workforce about the inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature towards colleagues will not be tolerated. The main focus is that sexual harassment whether in a verbal or physical form is a violation of another person intimate space, which should never occur in the workplace. (U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board p. 2-10) Encourage Reporting It is the responsibility of any organization to encourage staff to report incidents of sexual harassment by making the process accessible to all and by being approachable and dealing allegations in a sensitive and confidential manner. Some organizations worry that this inflates sexual harassment incidents, but the reality is that very few employees would report such a serious matter unduly, although it can happen. However, fostering a culture where staffs are actively encouraged to report incidents will quickly encourage staff to think before they speak or act in a sexually inappropriate way. (U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board p. 2-10) Take Allegations Seriously It can be difficult for a staff to bring an allegation of sexual harassment to the attention of their employer. Often employees have to overcome a number of internal barriers to do this including concerns about how they will be perceived by staff for reporting an incident and concerns about the effect reporting sexual harassment might have on their long term career within the organization. All these are real fears for an employee and it is exceptionally rare for an employee to report a sexual harassment incident just for the sake of it. As such the organization must provide full support and cooperation in order to know about the whole incident properly. All allegations should be investigated thoroughly by staff who are trained to do so and should be reported to the police with the permission of the victim where required in more serious cases. Even slapping or patting someone's bottom or touching another person without the individual's consent is considered an act of assault in the eyes of the law. As such it is important that the organization does not try to cover up sexual harassment allegations in a vain attempt to safeguard its reputation. (U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board p. 2-10) Educate Staff Organizations should provide sessions to inform about sexual harassment and about what is deemed inappropriate behavior. Policy documents concerning sexual harassment should be provided to all staff and followed up with presentations to communicate salient points. One should seek for peer learning strategy as that is an effective approach. Organizations should use posters around the office to highlight inappropriate behavior. These will caution employees to do any kind of such behavior. If an allegation of sexual abuse is bought to the attention of the organization then the alleged offender should be suspended. If there is no actual proof then this may seem severe, while it is also unfair to ask the victim to continue to work alongside the person who may have committed the sexual harassment. If they are later found to be innocent then they can return to their post, while losing nothing. (U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board p. 2-10) Appoint a Competent Investigator It is never justified for an individual, who is daily involved with either party, to investigate a sexual harassment allegation. It should always be taken up by a trained member of staff from the human resources department in an ideal and sensitive way. References: 1. The Masschusetts Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Sexual Harassment on the Job- A Guide for Employers. U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. 1983. This is a comprehensive report on sexual harassment. The report analyzes the idea of sexual harassment, solutions to it, recent court decisions and legal trends. It includes a bibliography and sample company policies on sexual harassment. 2. U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, Sexual Harassment in the Federal Work Place: Is It A Problem? (1981), 104 pp. Washington, D.C. 20402. A thorough study of sexual harassment in Federal employment which includes sections describing employees' perceptions of the problem, characteristics of the victims and the perpetrators, the cost of sexual harassment, and charts and statistics. 3. Muller, Max. The manager's guide to HR: hiring, firing, performance evaluations, documentation, benefits, and everything else you need to know. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. 2009. The Manager's Guide to HR is a quick and ready reference that clarifies hot-button issues such as dealing with conflict, privacy issues, COBRA compliance, disabilities, sexual harassment and more.Managing people is a tricky business--and managers and small business owners can no longer get by without understanding the essentials of human resources. 4. Boland, Mary L.. Sexual harassment in the workplace. SphinxLegal, 2005 Sexual harassment in the workplace talks about What You Need to Know-and What You Can Do A necessity for every employee's reference shelf. 5. Conte, Alba . Sexual harassment in the workplace: law and practice. Aspen Publishers Online, 2000 Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, Third Edition, Is a comprehensive guide that provides all the information you need to successfully litigate a sexual harassment claim. Sexual Harassment in the Workplace guides you through the relevant administrative and legal proceedings, from client interviews to attorney's fees. it discusses state and federal remedi Read More