Recently, Maryland Senate Bill 450 (SB 450) went into effect, revising the definition of sexual harassment in the workplace by changing the standard of sexual harassment from “severe or pervasive” conduct to the “totality of the circumstances” in sexual harassment cases.

The previous standard of “severe or pervasive conduct” was a rather high standard that made it particularly challenging for employees to prevail because they were required to show the conduct they faced in the workplace was so offensive, threatening or consistent that their place of employment was unbearable. Under the previous standard, fleeting sexual remarks did not rise to a level of legally actionable sexual harassment.

The new “totality of the circumstances” standard looks to whether a reasonable person would perceive the working environment as abusive or hostile. This new relaxed standard significantly expands the scope of conduct which may support a claim of sexual harassment. This will likely lead to an increase in viable sexual harassment claims and increased litigation costs because winning summary judgment will become exceedingly difficult. To read the full text of Senate Bill 450, click here.

Maryland employers should consider arranging for sexual harassment training for their workforce to ensure employees and management have a better understanding of what constitutes sexual harassment, how it can be prevented, how employees can report an incident and how complaints should be addressed.

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