The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently held that an employer will be liable for a customer’s harassment of an employee only when it intends for such harassment to occur. This ruling diverges sharply from the stance of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and all other federal appellate courts that have considered the issue, making it more challenging—at least in the Sixth Circuit—to establish liability for harassment by customers and other third parties.
The employer manufactures and distributes cleaning products to retail and commercial businesses. While visiting a motel customer on a sales call, the motel’s manager propositioned the employer’s sales representative in his locked office. The sales representative refused the motel manager and informed her supervisor about the incident. The supervisor assigned the motel client to a different sales team, ensuring that the employee would not have to interact with that client again. However, around the same time, the...
One of the nation’s largest specialty wound care providers for nursing home patients has settled a False Claims lawsuit for $45 million, but it continues to reject the allegations of wrongdoing ma...