sexual harassment.... need to know what i can do
my wife had to file a sexual harassment charge against a co worker around 6 months
ago. She has since moved to a different store and the kid that did is still employed at the other location. she had to fill out all this paper work and the owner of these stores had talked to this kid about it and told him that he no longer was allowed to speak to my wife.. it was verbal sexual harassment by the way. well about a week ago he called her at the other store a to see how she was doing.she told him he was not to contact her and that she would be letting the owner know. a little back ground this kid has been fired from two other jobs for this same issue. so when my wife talked to girls at the other stores they had told her that he had been faxing pictures of himself and sending emails to these other girls who dont want to tell on this guy because it will make them "look Bad". so my wife contact the owner again and was suppose to come and talk to my wife but decided he had other things to do. i need to know what the law states about going after the company or the individual for this as this kid has not been fired only had to take a week off b4 cuz of it..please help.
Answers (1)
The law requires your wife's employer to provide her and others with a work environment free from sexual harassment. It also encourages employers to have a complaint procedure and to investigate and remedy complaints. The law realizes that the employer cannot control every action of a bad employee but, once the employer learns that an the employee is sexually harassing others, it must take steps to prevent that harassment.
Think of it like a vicious dog law. The owner of the dog usually gets one warning. After that, the owner is liable for the harm caused by the dog.
Here, the owner was warned by your wife that this kid is harassing her. The employer took action to stop the harassment directed at your wife. Now it appears that the kid is doing it to others, but the owner has not responded to it.
At this point the law says that the girls at the store where the kid is harassing them may have a decent case. The owner is aware of the kid but doing nothing. Your wife, however, probably does not have a claim, since the kid is not harassing her.
Your wife can encourage the girls at the other store to stand up for their rights. However, if they choose not to complain about the guy, your wife will not be able to make a claim for them.
Regards,
Neil.
posted by Neil Klingshirn | Sep 21, 2006 4:06 PM [EST]
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