Anti-harassment Policies
Employers use anti-harassment policies to help limit liability for workplace harassment.
- Harassment is unwanted verbal or physical conduct that demeans or threatens a person
- most orgs develop no-tolerance policies
Elements of Anti-harassment Policies
- Definition of harassment
- define inappropriate conduct
- includes in-person and electronic interactions that are threatening, intimidating, or offensive in nature
- Conduct is offensive if it is demeaning based on race, gender, national origin, disability, religion, or politics
- Reporting
- must give employees a way to report harassment
- must include alternatives if the alleged harasser is a victim’s direct supervisor
- Investigation
- must investigate harassment complaints
- must stop harassment when they have reasonable evidence that it is occurring
- No retaliation
- must make sure that it does not retaliate against employees who file harassment complaints
- Sanctions
- state the consequences for violating the policy