SEXUAL HARASSMENT: YOUR RIGHTS & EMPLOYER RESPONSIBILITIES

SEXUAL HARASSMENT: YOUR RIGHTS & EMPLOYER RESPONSIBILITIES

Dawn Maraldi, who worked as a bartender at Miami's 94th Aero Squadron, was angered by her manager's conduct. She complained to a supervisor that the restaurant's general manager had been making sexual remarks and was touching her inappropriately, Maraldi told jurors.

Work became even more uncomfortable, Maraldi contended, after the general manager learned that she had complained. She told of being assigned duties not shared by male bartenders and then being forbidden to take meal breaks. In her lawsuit, Maraldi charged that her employer sexually harassed her and then illegally retaliated against her by treating her even more harshly after she asked managers to intervene.

Jurors awarded Maraldi ,000. Then the judge ordered her former employer pay Maraldi's lawyers another ,000 for their legal fees.

Sexual harassment is not uncommon. More than 20,000 complaints of sexual harassment are filed yearly with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The annual number of complaints alleging that employers retaliate against workers who complain of discrimination of any type has more than doubled since 1990.

Employees in all types of work can learn these lessons from Maraldi's experience: Persons believing they have been sexually harassed need to react quickly. Maraldi's attorneys were permitted to file a lawsuit on her behalf because she met short statute of limitations reporting requirements. Persons who fail to report incidents of discrimination to governmental agencies on a timely basis may waive their rights to legal recourse. Quick action can enable discrimination victims to strengthen their claims through lawful means of accumulation of evidence and obtaining witness corroboration.

Consider hiring an attorney experienced in employment discrimination matters. Most job bias victims don't know which law or laws may apply in their cases. Non-attorneys at governmental agencies often perform intake duties, although they aren't always familiar with multiple laws which employers may have violated. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and other under-funded governmental agencies lack resources to file more than a few lawsuits and rarely conduct thorough case reviews. Watch out for retaliation after you complain of being harassed. In addition to being fired, changes in duties, reduced privileges, and altered shift assignments can occur. Retaliation is illegal and can result in hefty verdicts, even if initial complaints of discrimination fail to sway jurors. Many employers don't have policies which can prevent harassment or retaliation and those having these guidelines sometimes fail to follow them. This checklist may indicate that you are at high-risk for sexual harassment or illegal retaliation: Does your employer lack an anti-discrimination / anti-harassment policy? Do top managers frequently communicate to staff and supervisory personnel that sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination won't be tolerated? If not, employees may lack guidance as to what types of conduct are inappropriate.

Does your employer provide you with a choice of more than one person to complain to when reporting discrimination? When limiting workers to lodge complaints with one designated person, employers may be requiring discrimination victims to complain to the person harassing them or to another person who also is supervised by the same harasser.

Does your employer promptly and carefully investigate discrimination complaints? Once misconduct is found, employers sometimes refuse to adequately discipline persons who harass and discriminate. Employers which don't investigate reports of bias and fail to stop discriminatory conduct send signals which encourage personnel to retaliate against workers who complain of discriminatory conduct.

LORING N. SPOLTER is a Fort Lauderdale attorney who practices in the field of employment law. His law office phone number is (954) 728-3494. Information contained in this article was accurate as of May, 2001. This article is for general information use only and does not substitute for specifically tailored legal advice. For purposes of objectivity, Mr. Spolter articles include information only on cases litigated by lawyers other than himself.