Unwanted sexual conduct in the workplace violates state and federal law. Illegal sexual conduct ranges from actions such as unwanted comments about a person’s body or questions about someone’s personal relationships to requests for sex and inappropriate touching. Requests by a supervisor for dates, or worse, requests for sex, clearly violate the law. Inappropriate touching by a supervisor also clearly violates the law. Sexual requests or touching by a co-worker also violates the law if the employer knows, or should know, about the conduct. The victim of sexual harassment must take certain actions to protect her or his rights under the law.
If you believe that you are a victim of sexual harassment, you should contact the employment rights attorneys at our Stamford, Connecticut firm immediately so we can help stop the harassment and protect your rights.
Not all inappropriate sexualized conduct in the workplace is against the law. Here are the types of conduct that are prohibited by law:
Illegal conduct includes:
General use of off-color language is not sufficient to constitute a hostile environment.
There must be a connection to the victim’s employment for sexual harassment to be illegal. (Other laws prohibit sexual assault, unrelated to employment, and sexual harassment in schools.) The harassment can be connected in the following ways:
An employer’s liability (responsibility) for sexual harassment in the workplace depends on the type of sexual harassment that occurred:
When an employer is made aware of sexual harassment, they must:
A victim of sexual harassment must almost always report the conduct. If he or she does not, there may be no protection under the law.
Contact the sexual harassment lawyers of Casper & de Toledo to schedule a consultation regarding your experience of sexual harassment on the job.