Sexual Harassment in Workplace

Document Type:Research Paper

Subject Area:Law

Document 1

It will also consider sexual harassment in context of law, specifically the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Title VII Act of 1964. Types and forms of sexual harassment are also considered as well as those who are commonly harassed. It will also look at why most of these incidences go unreported. Finally, it is the employers’ liability if these cases are reported to have occurred in their workplaces. Introduction Sexual harassment is discouraged by law under the Equal Opportunity Act of 2010. The two forms of sexual harassment which are recognized in the United States. the first type, Quid pro quo sexual harassment, is where employees have to tolerate sexual harassment to get employment, benefit or promotion. A person in the authority, mostly the supervisor may force people under him to tolerate sexual harassment because they are seeking for the employment or benefits that come with the job.

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Besides this, there is Hostile work environment which is the ground for legal actions. It involves Sexual harassment that leads to offensive work environment. It is against any of these forms of sexual harassment. The following are some of the common forms of sexual harassment. Any sexual advances that are not agreed by one of the person involved are considered as sexual harassment. The EEOC also considers any sexual remarks about women that are offensive to be also sexual harassment. This is the same situation when the same comments come from the female person towards the male gender. The employer is therefore tasked with responsibility to ensure that there is reduced or no forms of sexual harassment in the workplace. It taints the image and the reputation of the Company and viewed as a failure by management to safeguard its employees.

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In most cases Sexual harassment occurs because one person in the workplace has more powers than another one. In most cases, it is the harasser who uses his powers and position to inflict his sexual desires to the victim. The victims end up with guilt and are left with helplessness situation. The EEOC is a government agency that is tasked with the responsibility of processing cases of sexual harassment. According to the EEOC, only a third of the sexual harassment cases are reported to them by the victims. 75 % of all cases go unreported (Norton, 2015). This is because of fear or people lacking trust in these agencies that deal with allegations for sexual harassment. The commission further reveals that one out of four of the women in the workplace are sexually harassed by their male counterparts.

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Likewise women who work in places where they are paid low income are frequently abused. These are jobs like cleaning or jobs in the farm. In this case they have low bargaining power before their seniors (Kauppinen, 2016). In this case sexual harassment is portrayed as expression of strength and power with comes with expression of hostility as well. Men are also at risk of being harassed sexually. If any employer is in charge of more than 15 employees under him, he has to comply with Title VII Act. Those with employees less than 15 are governed by other rules of the country to ensure that people are not engaged in vices that are related to sexual harassment. In the first case if the hostile work environment or the quid pro quo is applicable in either case, then employers may be liable to mandatory compensation.

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This may be in the form of money to cater for this punitive damage to the victim. It pays for the loss that comes with this or suffering and pain. The victims are also discouraged from by the way the legal systems function. There are times when legal systems fail to provide protection towards workers who are exploited in this manner. In some cases people have been discouraged from fighting back these cases. References AAUW. Know Your Rights at Work: Workplace Sexual Harassment. eeoc. gov/laws/types/sexual_harassment. cfm FindLaw. Sexual Harassment at Work - FindLaw. Retrieved from http://employment. Work-Related Violence, Bullying, and Sexual Harassment.  Promoting Health for Working Women, 1(2), 161-182. doi:10. 1007/978-0-387-73038-7_6 Lehman, B. Why Title VII Should Prohibit All Workplace Sexual Harassment.

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