WORKPLACE MORALE AND VIOLENCE (Part 3)
By: Steven E. Brown, Attorney at Law
Part three – a final example and conclusions
Here is one more typical example of a “stressful” work situation that recurs in our practice, which sometimes can lead to litigation or more serious problems.
Example 3 – [employee being sexually harassed]
scenario and possible legal claims:
A female civilian Defense Department employee working at a foreign military base is being sexually harassed by a male supervisor. As a new employee, she has relied on the supervisor for guidance, and he uses his position of authority to offer her help with arranging daycare for her minor son, finding an apartment in the area, etc. He begins visiting her at the new apartment, ostensibly to help in some way, but soon makes sexual advances that she rejects. He persists, visiting her apartment unannounced, calling her there at all hours, and making increasingly direct threats that her performance appraisals might suffer if she doesn’t cooperate. Several times she complains about all this to upper management, but nothing is done.
After several months of this, the female employee starts seeing a psychotherapist, who recommends taking a short break from work and possibly filing a discrimination (EEO) complaint. She files a complaint, and the supervisor denies any wrongdoing. Meanwhile she is intermittently losing time from work, and her sick leave and annual leave balances are running low. She is outraged that the supervisor denies what he did to her, but feels confident that at least some of her co-workers will support her allegations, because of some incidents that they observed happen both at work and at her apartment complex where many other government employees also live. She learns, however, that some of her witnesses are reluctant to testify for fear of retribution.
| POSSIBLE LEGAL CLAIMS | LEGAL REMEDIES FROM EMPLOYER |
| Discrimination (EEO) complaint (sex) | Back pay for time lost from work |
| - sexual harassment | Front pay (if any) for future time lost |
| - hostile work environment | Pecuniary and non-pecuniary compensa-tory damages for emotional upset and all out-of-pocket expenses |
| Medical treatment costs (e.g. psychiatric treatment) | |
| Attorney fees | |
| OWCP claim (emotional stress) | Back pay for time lost from work |
| - harassment in fact | Front pay (may be temporary or partial) |
| - error or abuse by employer (allowing sexual harassment to take place) | Medical treatment costs (e.g. her psychiatric treatment) |
| OPM disability retirement application (if she suffers a lengthy disability) | Front pay (reduced to 60%/40% benefit) payable by OPM from a fund to which the employer contributes |
| Medical treatment costs – through employee keeping health insurance at group rate partially subsidized by employer |
Suggestions:
Employers simply cannot tolerate a subordinate being victimized like this. Not only is this supervisor’s behavior illegal, giving rise to all kinds of expensive claims, but it also gives a loud and clear message to other employees about what they can expect from supervisors and what supervisors can “get away with”. It’s not enough to simply adopt a policy against sexual harassment and post it on a bulletin board. Employers must actively guard against these situations developing and take prompt remedial action whenever something like this starts to happen.
CONCLUSION
Even though our laws are not the equivalent of religious principles, they are based on the moral values of our society. One can see from the examples given in this three-part article that a degree of human kindness and consideration for the plight of an employee goes a long way towards pointing the employer towards the proper legal response to the problem. This is true even if the employer had nothing to do with creating the problem itself (as in Example 2 in part two, above). Consideration for how an employee might feel in a situation, and what is in the best interests of that employee, can help avoid costly and difficult consequences.
______________________________
STEVEN E. BROWN has been representing federal employees for over thirty years, with emphasis on wrongful termination, workers’ compensation, retirement issues and discrimination complaints. He has lectured before various groups on these and related topics for the past several years. His firm’s website, www.federal-law.com, contains materials developed for some of these talks, as well as other educational materials developed by attorney Brown as an aid to his clients and members of the public. The firm is located at 910 Hampshire Road, Suite G, Westlake Village, CA 91361, and can be reached at 805-496-9777 (voice), 805-496-6368 (fax), or sbrownesq@federal-law.com.