I represent North Carolina employees in a wide range of employment law cases — including sexual harassment. I typically represent employees on a contingent fee basis. I am happy to advise employees about how to handle ongoing harassment.
To effectively pursue a sex harassment case, it is critical to (1) assemble and preserve evidence, (2) follow the employer’s anti-harassment policy, and (3) not quit.
Since the beginning of the #MeToo movement, I have seen a dramatic increase in women coming forward with issues of sex harassment and witnesses who are more willing to stand with the employee. Consequently, I have successfully settled many sexual harassment cases in the last several years, obtaining severance pay, an agreement to keep the agreement confidential and to not disparage or “blacklist” the employee, and a positive employment reference.
The best way to get started is to complete the contact form at the bottom of this page.
— Attorney David G. Schiller
Overview
The law prohibiting sexual harassment is found in Title VII. Employees are legally protected from having to work in a discriminatorily hostile or abusive environment. Workplace conduct that may be prohibited includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.
Examples of unlawful sexual harassment include employees who are:
pressured or forced to have sex to keep their job;
subjected to unwanted sexual attention, touching, or jokes at work;
exposed to pornography against their will; and
subjected to retaliation for complaining about sexual harassment.
The law does not prohibit conduct that is “merely offensive.” However, the conduct does not have to cause psychological injury to constitute sexual harassment.
The employer has an affirmative defense to sexual harassment cases. The employer’s reasonableness is judged by whether it exercised reasonable care to prevent sexually harassing behavior.
Deciding if an employer acted reasonably depends on many factors, including a review of the employer’s anti-harassment discrimination policies and employer’s efforts to respond to complaints of harassment. It is important for the employee to use the employer’s anti-harassment complaint procedures.
There are administrative procedures with short deadlines that must be pursued prior to bringing a claim for Sexual Harassment under Title VII. Therefore, it is advisable to contact an attorney soon after the harassment and/or retaliation has occurred.
What is Sex Harassment?
Sexual harassment at work occurs if the employee is subjected to unwelcome conduct on the basis of the employee’s sex that affects the employee’s job.
The U.S. Supreme Court has defined two kinds of unlawful sexual harassment.
The first kind is harassment that results in a tangible employment action. This is called “quid pro quo.” An example of quid pro quo is when a manager pressures or forces a subordinate employee to have sex to keep her job.
It is important to note that this kind of sexual harassment can be committed only by someone who can make or strongly influence employment actions that hurt the employee, such as firing, demotion, and the denial of a promotion.
The second kind of sexual harassment is called a “hostile environment.” A hostile environment can result from the sex-based unwelcome conduct of supervisors and co-workers. Examples of actions that create a hostile work environment are:
discussing sexual activities;
telling jokes about sex;
using crude and offensive language or gestures;
commenting on an employee’s physical appearance;
displaying sexually charged images; and
offensive touching.
Whether or not the employer is legally responsible for the actions of its employees and managers will depend upon several factors, including the severity and duration of the harassment, as explained in the next section.
There are administrative procedures with short deadlines that must be pursued prior to bringing a claim for Sexual Harassment under Title VII. Therefore, it is advisable to contact an attorney soon after the harassment and/or retaliation has occurred.
Hostile Environment
To meet the legal standard for a hostile environment, unwelcome conduct based on gender must be both:
(1) subjectively abusive to the employee, and
(2) objectively severe enough to constitute a work environment that a reasonable person would find abusive.
To determine whether behavior is severe or pervasive enough to create a hostile environment, the court looks at the following factors:
the frequency and severity of the unwanted conduct;
whether the conduct was physically threatening or humiliating;
whether the conduct interfered with work performance; and
the effect on the employee’s psychological well-being.
Sexual harassment cases are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. It is important that the employee not “pre-judge” whether or not their situation meets all of these factors, but, rather seek legal counsel.
The next section pertains to reporting sexual harassment and participating in an investigation.
There are administrative procedures with short deadlines that must be pursued prior to bringing a claim for Sexual Harassment under Title VII. Therefore, it is advisable to contact an attorney soon after the harassment and/or retaliation has occurred.
Reporting Sexual Harassment
Employers have an affirmative legal defense to sexual harassment cases if the employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and/or correct the sexually harassing behavior.
The first part of the employer’s defense is to have an appropriate anti-harassment policy. This should include:
(1) a stated policy against harassing behavior;
(2) training on appropriate workplace behavior; and
(3) a procedure for reporting sexual harassment.
The employer will be judged on whether it acted reasonably in responding to reports of sexual harassment. If the employee does not report the sexual harassment, then the employer may have nothing to respond to.
Thus, employees who fail to use the employer’s complaint procedure may be unsuccessful in bringing a sexual harassment case against the employer.
It is important for the employee to be prepared to meet face-to-face with the investigator and be able to give him/her a chronology and details of the events and an idea about how the employee believes the problem should be resolved.
The attorneys at Schiller & Schiller are experienced in work place investigations and can advise employees how to handle the process. The next section explains the counsel we provide to employees in sexual harassment cases.
There are administrative procedures with short deadlines that must be pursued prior to bringing a claim for Sexual Harassment under Title VII. Therefore, it is advisable to contact an attorney soon after the harassment and/or retaliation has occurred.
Attorney Schiller
I am experienced in litigating sexual harassment cases. It is often beneficial to meet with employees early in the process. I can provide the following advice and counsel to employees:
evaluate whether the conduct is unlawful;
assist in documenting the conduct;
preserve and protect evidence of the conduct and the psychological injury;
follow the complaint procedures to protect the employee;
answer questions in an internal investigation; and
help handle the backlash (if any) after the complaint is made.
More often, employees contact us once the complaint procedure is over. In those situations, we provide able counsel to pursue the case with the EEOC and then, if necessary, file the case in State or Federal Court.
There are administrative procedures with short deadlines that must be pursued prior to bringing a claim for Sexual Harassment under Title VII. Therefore, it is advisable to contact an attorney soon after the harassment and/or retaliation has occurred.
Contact the Law Firm
You are welcome to contact us regarding your sexual harassment issue. Please complete the contact form below so that we can assist you with your employment issue.
If you have any employment issue with an agency of the State of North Carolina (e.g. Department of Transportation), please use the State employee contact form.