Home>News>Headlines>

How to address, investigate workplace harassment

Listen to this article

By Shayda Le

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published final guidance on harassment in the workplace earlier this year. While this guidance is not law, it provides employers with an official agency resource on legal standards and employer liability in relation to federal harassment laws. While the existing legal framework for analyzing harassment claims has not changed, there are some new areas of focus, and updated recommendations, which employers can incorporate into how they evaluate allegations of harassment in the workplace, and how they investigate such concerns.

Areas of emphasis

• Remote work: In recognition of the proportion of EEOC charges that include allegations of harassment, and in recognition of the fact that the number of charges has increased despite the prevalence of remote work or hybrid work arrangements, the new guidance includes focus on how harassment can occur in a remote work environment. It specifically recognizes discussions during videoconferences, comments made within a chat feature, racist images that might be visible in someone’s background, and conduct occurring away from work like posts on a personal social media page.
• Intraclass harassment: This is where harassment is based on a protected characteristic, but the harasser is a member of the same protected class. The new guidance emphasizes that such conduct still counts as...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMikAFBVV95cUxNZTlkbXhGVjdOR29PczVVYTRX...