Question: What type of penalties for harassment are in place under the law?
Answer: Before 1930, employees did
not have much protection from their employers. In 1930, though, Congress
decided to offer some protection by passing laws to protect employees
a little bit, and created the following laws: minimum wage law; social
security laws; and extra hours laws.
Nevertheless, before 1965 there weren't
any laws protecting employees from harassment at the work place. Harassment
can occur in several ways: when a person is made to feel uncomfortable,
or is in some way discriminated, on the basis of their race, national
origin, color of their skin, gender [their sex], religion, age, or disability.
In 1965, Title 7 was passed - which is the law that provides the most
protection for harassment and discrimination in our society. Other laws
relating to disabilities did not become effective later [the Americans
with Disabilities Act did not become effective until 1990].
When an employee is 'harassed' or in some
way discriminated against by another person at work, there are a few different
claims that can be made against the 'harasser' at the state level. All
of these claims can include money damages [that is, the person suing gets
money for having been harassed] or an action can be ordered [that is,
that the person harassing the plaintiff must be fired, or if the harassment
resulted in the plaintiff getting fired, rehiring the plaintiff].
Some examples of typical 'harassment' type
claims are:
1) Tort Claims: this claim has a plaintiff complaining
of being 'wronged', and is the type of lawsuit most Americans are familiar
with.
2) Defamation: the plaintiff here complains of their
'name' being ruined.
3) Emotional Distress: the plaintiff here complains
that they were emotionally disturbed by the harrassment
4) Fraud: this is a claim where the plaintiff argues
that they were somehow deceived on a serious point.
5) Public Policy [44 states still have this claim,
which basically is a claim that means the action involved is bad in
general, and needs to be brought so that it doesn't happen again
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| Comments |
| 1 thru 5 of 9 comments |
On 02/23/05
tim from AZ said:
I have been working with a company 6 yrs.
Ever since my first month of employment there's been frincion between myself and another employee. I don't know what caused his dislike for me.I get along with everyone else. He constantly gosips about me to another employee. There have been three ocasions when he insited verbal confrontations with me. I though he was going to hit me. I never know when he is going to fly off the handle. will i leave work and find him waiting in the parking lot, or my truck damaged?
Is this harassment? I'm afraid if I report it I'll get fired! It's a small company.
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On 02/07/05
Jay from CA said:
I have been working at my place of employment for approximatley 4 years. Since I started my profession, I have been made fun of, been made fun of and been turned away from schools, of which fellow employees have been able to attend. I am also a witness in an incident which one person was fired. Since my statement with the investigator, I have been pulled into the office by several managers, where they began questioning me about what I had talked about. This I know is against the law, but I don't know who to turn to. This incident includes high level managment being involved. What can I do?
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On 01/13/05
Lisa from AZ said:
I am 17 years old and i have been working in a place for about 5 months now and i knew the manager for a while from my previous job and i though he was really cool so i decided to go work for him and now everyday all i get is sexual comments towards me, he always talks about sex and stuff like that. He also sometimes touches me.. i never thought anything of it until it became a constant thing and my boyfriend brought it up and dosnt like the fact that i work there. I like working there but i just dont like the fact that a girl like me feels sexually harrassed by a 40 year old male wut do i do?
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On 06/02/04
Dawn from IA said:
I work for a company that develops housing for income limited people. We have a neighbor who continually is harrassing us and asking for ridiculous things that take up much time. Is there a law to protect us from this "no poor people allowed" neighbor or can she continue to harrass us about building homes in her neighborhood?
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On 05/06/04
Debbie Daniels from VA said:
My 17 year old son works in a very nice restaurant where I am also employed. I used to be the night manager but was replaced by the owners son-in-law 28 yrs. old who had had no previous experience and is intimitaded by me because of my many years of experience in food service and management. To make a long story short, the new manager uses words and attitude to try to intimidate me and my son. It has gotten so bad that my son finally couldn't take it anymore and gave his notice. He always made his comments in front of other staff. Is there anything that I can do about this situation.
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