As anyone who has worked in a customer-facing job can tell you, dealing with difficult customers often comes with the territory. However, when customer behavior crosses a line into illegal conduct like sexual harassment, both the customer and the employer may find themselves in hot water.
Wynn Las Vegas, a Nevada hotel, learned the hard way recently when an appellate court reinstated a lawsuit filed against the hotel by one of Wynn’s employees, Vincent Fried, in Fried v. Wynn Las Vegas. Fried argued that Wynn was liable for creating a hostile work environment not because of any harassment by a boss or coworker but rather by a customer.
What is a “hostile work environment”? In the sexual harassment context, a hostile work environment exists when an employee is the target of: 1) sexual conduct that is 2) unwelcome and 3) “sufficiently severe or pervasive so as to alter conditions of employment.”
In 2017, a customer came into Wynn’s salon and sexually propositioned Fried. Fried immediately went to his manager to report the customer, at which point the manager allegedly told him to “get it over with” and serve the customer despite the lewd comments.
This response from the manager, according to the Ninth Circuit’s recent holding, by itself could be grounds for a hostile work environment claim against Wynn.
Fried is not seeking to hold Wynn liable for the customer’s harassment. Rather, he is arguing that his manager’s response to the harassment by itself created a hostile work...
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