What happens if an incident is not "extremely serious"?
According to the Supreme Court:
“…when isolated incidents that are not “extremely serious” come to the attention of management, appropriate corrective action should still be taken so that they do not escalate.” Faragher, 118 S.Ct. at 2283.
In other words, your employers can not justify inaction, in regard to an isolated incident, by saying that the incident was only a minor or moderate level incident. Any harassing or discriminatory incident that is reported to management should receive consideration for corrective action. Remember, management is legally obligated to prevent and correct the effects of harassment and other illegal behavior. Therefore, management can’t assign “code levels,” like the security alert system used for terrorism (orange, red, etc.), to determine when they will attempt to stop negative behaviors from escalating. They must establish and implement an appropriate corrective response that will put an end to the behavior.
“…when isolated incidents that are not “extremely serious” come to the attention of management, appropriate corrective action should still be taken so that they do not escalate.” Faragher, 118 S.Ct. at 2283.
In other words, your employers can not justify inaction, in regard to an isolated incident, by saying that the incident was only a minor or moderate level incident. Any harassing or discriminatory incident that is reported to management should receive consideration for corrective action. Remember, management is legally obligated to prevent and correct the effects of harassment and other illegal behavior. Therefore, management can’t assign “code levels,” like the security alert system used for terrorism (orange, red, etc.), to determine when they will attempt to stop negative behaviors from escalating. They must establish and implement an appropriate corrective response that will put an end to the behavior.
posted by S. Mary Wills at 8:39 AM
2 Comments:
This kind of language is always very disturbing to me:
"when isolated incidents that are not "extremely serious" come to the attention of management, appropriate corrective action should still be taken so that they do not escalate."
Tt is deliberately obtuse and leaves enough room for an elephant to blow through it, let alone an employers discretion....
It's a catch-22. If you mention that you are aware that management should take "appropriate corrective action" for even minor incidents, your employer will think you've been talking to a lawyer. This could increase any problems you have, instead of fixing them. And, if you don't say anything they will leave the "elephant" in the room and say that the situation did not fit the EEOC or any legal standard that required action. This is why people suffer in silence. No one seems to really have our backs. From lax and easiy manipulated legalese to employer "discretion" we certainly have our work cut out for us when it comes to addressing issues at work!
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