He Touched Me!

“Mary has complained about John to me, saying he has touched her inappropriately and made sexual comments. Mary’s work quality and quantity is much lower than John’s and I was already thinking of letting her go. This seems like a good reason to move ahead with Mary’s termination, right?”

Your HR Survival Tip

STOP! The minute Mary told you about John, Mary was protected from any form of negative employment action. Termination is definitely negative and could be viewed as retaliation for making the complaint, which is illegal.

Do not ignore the complaint or brush it off as a misunderstanding. That’s the path to a lawsuit, even if Mary happens to be someone who makes everything into a really big thing. You have a legal obligation to investigate.

So what does it look like when the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) goes after you for sexual harassment and retaliation? It recently cost Z Foods $1,470,000 and, its predecessor, Zoria Farms $330,000. They are dried food processors in central CA that had two supervisors who were harassing female workers on an on-going basis. The company fired the women who complained and their male coworkers who stepped forward as witnesses for them.

If you get a complaint of any kind, you absolutely need to take it seriously and check it out. In fact, in California, a manager can be individually sued if they knew about harassment and didn’t do anything about it. Managers cannot guarantee confidentiality to an employee when the subject is harassment.

Whatever you do, do not react by changing anything about the complainant’s work situation (or that of their witnesses). If you need to separate the complainant from the accused, move the accused to a different space or put them on suspension while you investigate. Don’t rush into anything but don’t dawdle. Big delays can work against you.

Ideally, you’ll contact an employment law attorney (ask me for a referral!) so the investigation is done properly and any information discovered is protected by attorney-client privilege. You can investigate yourself, but you still need direction on how to do it right and how to document your findings and decision.