It is beginning to feel like every day in
the paper and online; there is a new story about sexual harassment,
especially at large, well-known corporations. Employees and former
employees have made allegations of sexual harassment against Uber,
Google, and Tesla to name a few. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 (Title VII) prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace which
includes sexual harassment. Sexual harassment exists when a condition
of employment is predicated on the performance of a sexual act, or
unwelcome sexual conduct is pervasive or severe enough that it creates a
hostile work environment for the victim.
One corporation is getting much of the
media attention these days because dozens of women came forward and
accused former Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly and others at Fox of
rampant sexually inappropriate misconduct. In September 2016, Fox paid
20 million dollars to Gretchen Carlson to settle her sexual harassment
lawsuit against former CEO and Chairman of Fox News Roger Ailes. There
have been reports that several other women received significant payouts
after they complained about sexual harassment and discrimination. Since
even more allegations have surfaced, Fox has fired O’Reilly, and
multiple women have filed lawsuits against him and the company for
sexual harassment and retaliation.
Most Victims Don’t Report Sexual Harassment
These matters above are taking place
against very high-profile companies, and some even involve famous (or
infamous) parties. But what about the victims in smaller businesses?
What about the victims who can’t afford to walk away from a job? How
about the victim who has no idea who to talk to? Perhaps all of this
media attention on sexual harassment will result in positive changes to
what is still an almost common workplace problem.
A Harvard Business Review article reported:
“Even though the Bureau of Labor
Statistics finds that 70% of employers provide sexual harassment
training and 98% of companies have sexual harassment policies, the
number of sexual harassment claims filed with the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is significant — there were 6,822 claims
of sexual harassment in 2015.”
According to one survey conducted in
2015, 75% of women experienced some sexual harassment at work, but 71%
of those women never reported it.
By this logic, the number of claims filed
with the EEOC represents only a small fraction of the sexual harassment
that is occurring in the workplace.
These statistics demonstrate that there
is a serious disconnect between employee education, the frequency of
sexual harassment, and the reporting of unlawful conduct. Fear of
retaliation from an employer or the harasser is allegedly the main
reason why most women do not formally complain about or report sexual
harassment in the workplace. Title VII and New York labor laws both
prohibit retaliation in addition to sex harassment. The laws alone,
however, do not seem to be enough to convince victims to try and enforce
their rights.
Continue reading here https://www.sexualharassmentlawyer.com/blog/victims-not-report-sexual-harassment/
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