What is Sexual Harassment in the Workplace?
Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances, but essentially, it happens when there is “unwelcome verbal, visual or physical conduct of a sexual nature that is severe or pervasive and affects working conditions or creates a hostile work environment.”¹

A court held an employer liable when a supervisor asked an employee about her sexual conduct three to four times a week and made other similarly egregious comments to the victim in front of co-workers. In another case, a court found a single incident created a hostile work environment when a foreman forced a victim’s face against his groin in the presence of male co-workers. Finally, another court allowed to go to a jury a complaint of sexual harassment in which the victim presented evidence of daily sexual banter, sexual innuendo, and demeaning comments regarding her body and clothes.

Sexual harassment is not limited by gender. The victim or the harasser may be a man or a woman, and her or his victim does not have to be of the opposite sex. Additionally, harassers do not have to be the victim’s direct supervisor; he or she could be a co-worker, a supervisor in another area, or even a person not employed in the victim’s workplace. In fact, a victim of sexual harassment does not necessarily have to be the person directly being harassed; the victim could be negatively affected by the offensive conduct in such a way to make the conduct illegal.

Employer’s Liability for Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
Generally, an employer has a legal duty to take action to stop harassment as soon as the management learns of it. In some cases, however, an employer will be held responsible for harassment committed by a manager or supervisor, even if no one else knew what was occurring.

When a supervisor engages in harassment that results in an adverse employment action against the victim, the employer can be held liable, even if management was unaware of the harassment.

Likewise, an employer may be liable when a harasser creates a hostile work environment. An employer can limit its liability, however, if it can show that it took reasonable steps to prevent and promptly address the problem and that the victim unreasonably failed to take advantage of these measures.

When the harassment comes from a co-worker, an employer is liable if it knew, or should have known, about the harassment. The employer will not be liable if it took immediate and appropriate actions to stop the harassment and address the conflict.

Many states have adopted stronger protections against sexual harassment than required by Title VII. States that have stronger anti-harassment laws may not follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions and precedent. For more information, check out the relevant laws in your state or contact an employment lawyer in your state.

Statistics
In 2007, 12,510 reports of sexual harassment were filed with the EEOC. Although this was an increase from the previous year, complaints of sexual harassment have generally been declining over the past 10 years. In 1997, 15,889 charges of sexual harassment were reported to EEOC.²

A telephone poll of 782 U.S. workers, performed by Louis Harris and Associates,³ revealed that

• 31 percent of female workers reported that they had been harassed at work,
• 7 percent of male workers reported that they had been harassed at work,
• 62 percent of those reporting they had been harassed took no action,
• 100 percent of the women harassed reported that the harasser was a man, and
• 59 percent of men that reported having been harassed state that the harasser was a woman.

Of the women who had been harassed: 

• 43 percent reported that their harasser was a supervisor,
• 27 percent were harassed by an employee senior to them,
• 19 percent were harassed by a co-worker at their level, and
• 8 percent reported being harassed by a junior employee.

A 1999 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 62 percent of companies offer sexual harassment prevention training programs and 97 percent have a written sexual harassment policy.

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