Affirmative Action Responsibility
I turned in an allegation of abuse that happen against a mentally retarded individual in May '01. Starting in June I have documented multiple instances of harassement by 2 of my supervisiors against me. (One of these supervisiors works the shift that this abuse occured on. The other is his supervisior). (Denied time off, bogus write-ups stating to "deal only with issues concerning my self", bad job performances, training sessions that only I was made to attend, with holding of credentials, etc etc etc).
I have turned this over to an in-agency Affirmative Action Office to be acted upon the beginning of Feb. The supervisiors that I am accusing of harrasement are "dodging a meeting" with me and the affirmative action office. I was told today that they couldn't possibly find room in their schedules to meet until the week of March 18th.
My question is can the Affirmative Action Office continue to let this go unaddressed and for how long? I have been made to work in this environment throughout this and it'll be going on 2 months since I turned it in.
I feel enough is enough. Am I right to believe this as I am now considering legal action?
Answers (1)
Your query really contains an insufficient amont of information, so I can only guess at what your options might be. However, it does seem as if you will have certain protection.
You talk about an "agency." To me, that implies you work for a governmental entity. If that is the case, then you have a number of important protections under the New York Civil Service Law, including the fact that you cannot be fired except for cause.
Something about your query suggests that you might be a union member. If that is the case, you should consider consulting your union, for the purpose of filing a grievance over your treatment.
Something else about your query suggests that you work for some kind of health care facility. Although I am not familiar with the regulations concerning patient abuse, it is possible that you might have additional protections under regulations concerning patient abuse.
I don't know if this mentally retarded person is an employee of the agency. If he is, than you have protections under the anti-retaliation provisions of the New York State Human Rights Law. If this person is a client or patient, you still might have protections against retaliation under the HRL. You really don't have a harassment claim, because you are not being picked on because of your membership in a protected class. You are being picked on because of helping someone else in a protected class. Technically speaking, that is retaliation, not harasment.
posted by David M. Lira | Mar 6, 2002 12:09 PM [EST]
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