Unlawful Harassment
What is sexual harassment?
Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other physical, verbal, or visual conduct based on sex when: 1) Submission to the conduct is an explicit or implicit term or condition of employment. 2) Submission to or rejection of the conduct is used as the basis for an employment decision affecting the employee. 3) The conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with the employee's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.
Unlawful harassment example: Consider the following question: An officer is harassed due to his or her national origin, is the officer a victim of unlawful harassment?
The answer is yes. Any harassment that is a result of a person's national origin is unlawful harassment.
Reasonable person standard
To determine if the action is indeed sexual harassment, we must understand the "reasonable person" standard. The "reasonable person" standard is the judicial construct of an individual who thinks and responds the way an ordinary, logical, and careful person would under the same conditions. With the "reasonable person" standard in mind, ask yourself these questions: -Would I want any of these behaviors to be the subject of a column in my organization's newsletter or to appear on the evening news? -Is there equal power between me and the person I'm interacting with? -Would I behave the same way if my significant other were standing next to me? -Would I want someone else to act this way toward my significant other? -Is there equal initiation and participation between me and the person I'm interacting with? If you answered no to any of these questions, your behavior could very well be considered sexual harassment.
Identify and explain the two types of sexual harassment
1) Quid Pro Quo 2) Hostile Work Environment
Identify unlawful harassment
Any discrimination and/or improper conduct which consists of misconduct that includes unwelcome conduct, whether verbal, physical, or visual, that is based upon factors such as sex, color, race, religion, national origin, age, disability, or other protected group status as provided for by law is unlawful harassment. Also, if a supervisor commits an unlawful employment action, creates an unfavorable employment condition, or takes action all in order to intimidate the employee that reported an allegation of harassment in good faith, or cooperated in an investigation of harassment by providing assistance and information in an honest manner, this is unlawful retaliation. The employee is protected from both unlawful harassment and unlawful retaliation. Unlawful harassment can create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment, therefore interfering with the employee's work performance. Unlawful harassment can take place in the form of slurs, stereotyping, threats, or hostile actions.
Identify the possible impacts of harassment in the workplace
Can impact victim and workplace Victim: may experience fear, stress, health problems, safety issues, personal life, physical well being, psychological well being, humiliation and loss of dignity, reduced productivity and performance, increased sick leave and absenteeism. The Workplace: suffers in the following areas: costly litigation, low morale, employee turnover, bad press, damage to professional reputation of agency, monetary damages, decrease in productivity
Recognize procedures for reporting sexual or unlawful harassment
DCS employees are required to report unlawful harassment events, regardless if they are the victim or if someone else is the victim. If the supervisor has reason to believe that unlawful harassment exists, he or she is to immediately report the event to their supervisor or the District Director. For example, if a new employee is a victim of sexual harassment by the Field Training Officer, the victim or another employee is to report the event to their supervisor. The report is to be made in writing as soon as possible. This could be an Assistant Chief or Chief, depending on the way the office is set up. If the offender is the employee's supervisor, or there is no resolution from the immediate supervisor, the event should be reported to the next in line of the chain of command or the Director of Human Resources. All reports are to include a written statement. Any claim of unlawful harassment or unlawful retaliation may be reported through the chain of command. It may also bypass the chain of command or the grievance procedure and be expressed privately to the: a. Office of Professional Standards Director b. Chief Ethics Officer c. Director of Human Resources If your immediate supervisor is the person committed unlawful harassment against you, you are able to go to the next person in the chain of command.
SH: Hostile Work Environment
created as a result of sexual harassment. This can include remarks from one coworker to another about their body, one coworker telling another coworker a joke with sexual innuendos, or one coworker making suggestive gestures or remarks to another coworker. Such actions, when they are "unwelcome" by the coworker, create a hostile work environment. The hostile work environment is the most prevalent of the two types of sexual harassment.
SH: Quid Pro Quo
when submission to sexual harassment is made a term or condition of employment. The term or condition can be made either explicitly or implicitly. Also, submission to or rejection of the conduct is made the basis for employment decisions affecting the employee. Examples are when sexual favors are demanded in exchange for a promotion or raise. Disciplining or firing a subordinate who ends a romantic relationship. Changing performance expectations after a subordinate refuses repeated requests for a date. Quid Pro Quo is found to happen mostly between supervisors and staff. There is a coworker, usually an administrator, with power over another coworker. The video that follows will give an example of Quid Pro Quo sexual harassment.
