Assignment WEEK – 1 BUS-545 Human Resources Management
Sexual Harassment
Dr. Fathiah Inserto
Student - Abdul Majeed Zafar Iqbal

Employers are beholden to keep up a secure and safe workplace, which includes preventing harassment. It’s not solely smart for workers of a company, it’s smart for CEOs of the company as a result of knowing what harassment is and having policies in place for preventing and addressing it as it’ll prevent plenty of headaches and expensive lawsuits. Harassment is prosecuted underneath identical federal laws accustomed prosecute employers for race and non-secular discrimination, therefore it should be taken seriously.
What Is Sexual Harassment?
Sexual harassment is some unwelcome sexual advance or conduct on the duty that makes a daunting, hostile or offensive workplace. Whether or not one thing is offensive is judged by asking whether a sensible person ought to endure the conduct in question.
Sexual harassment can take several forms, here are some common examples, * A male worker creating critical comments concerning the length of a female coworker’s skirt. * Employees hanging out at common areas telling sexually explicit jokes. * A worker directing any other worker an email that uses suggestive or overt language. * A boss referring to his secretary in a sexist and undignified method. * A supervisor implying that to urge a raise, a coworker must sleep with him. * An employee groping another coworker.
Who can experience Sexual Harassment?
There is a standard thought that solely girls are often sexually displeased by men. To the contrary, harassment is gender-neutral and ladies will even as simply sexually harass men. In exercise, however, it's most typical for girls to file harassment complaints against men.
As for whether a gender will sexually annoy somebody of identical gender, it's been established that one gender can sexually harass identical gender if it's in a heterosexual method. This could occur, as an instance, by men sharing sexually express jokes that build another male coworker uncomfortable. It’s still an open question, whether someone can productively sue for homosexual harassment.
How to stop Sexual Harassment?
Fortunately, preventing harassment and limiting a liability as a leader of an organization is comparatively clear and easy.
Create a transparent harassment policy: Ensure you’ve got a harassment policy in place that defines harassment, explicitly sets forth that harassment isn't tolerated, explains the implications and sets forth a method for coverage and investigating complaints.
Train your workers concerning harassment: It's suggested that your workers receive harassment coaching once in a year, concentrating in common things that some workers may not bear in mind to be harassment, but are.
Monitor the workplace: Make it an everyday exercise to speak to your workers and question them concerning their operating surroundings to verify it stays harassment free.
Encourage workers to come ahead: Make it clear to your workers that something they tell you will be private and will not in any mode have influence on their career opportunities.
Take complaints seriously and investigate: Take all complaints seriously and perform a comprehensive investigation. If the objection has any basis, remedy the position instantly.
Some states make it necessary that certain employers conduct sexual harassment coaching. For instance, in California, employers that have a minimum of fifty employees are necessary to make their supervisors endure harassment coaching every 2 years. Many states don’t require it, however intensely encourage employers to deliver harassment training.
A famous scandal of David Letterman:
David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer, and actor. He hosts the late night television talk show Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on channel CBS.
On his October 1, 2009, show, Letterman declared that he had been the victim of a blackmail effort by somebody threatening to reveal that he had had sex with many of his female personnel, and at the same time, he confirmed that he had had such relations. He expressed that on September 9, 2009, somebody had left a package in his car with material he supposed he would write into a script and a book. If Letterman failed to pay him $2 million. Letterman said that he contacted the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, ultimately cooperating with them to conduct a sting operation involving giving the person a phony check. Later, Robert J. "Joe" Halderman, a producer of the CBS true crime journalism series 48 Hours, was detained when making an attempt to deposit the check. He was indicted by a Manhattan jury and pleaded clean-handed to a charge of tried thievery on October 2, 2009. Eventually, on March 9, 2010, he pleaded guilty to the same crime and served a 6-month jail sentence, followed by probation and community service.

A central figure in the case and one among the ladies with whom Letterman had a sexual relationship was his old personal assistant Stephanie Birkitt, who repeatedly appeared with him on his show. She had worked for 48 Hours too. Until a month before the revelations, she had shared a residence with Halderman, who apparently had traced her personal diary and used it, together with personal emails, in the blackmail package.

In the days following the initial announcement of the affairs and also the arrest, many distinguished women, with Kathie Lee Gifford, co-host of NBC's Today Show, and NBC news anchor Ann Curry questioned whether Letterman's affairs with subordinates created an unfair working environment. A spokesperson for Worldwide Pants said that the company's sexual harassment policy failed to compel sexual relationships between managers and staff. According to business news reporter Eve Tahmincioglu, "CBS suppliers are to follow the company's business conduct policies" and also the CBS 2008 Business Conduct Statement states that "If a willing romantic or sexual relationship between a supervisor and a direct or indirect subordinate ought to develop, CBS needs the supervisor to disclose this information to his or her Company's Human Resources Department".

On October 3, 2009, a former CBS member of staff, Holly Hester, declared that she and Letterman had engaged in a year-long "secret" affair in the early 90’s though she was his intern and a student at New York University.

On October 5, 2009, Letterman devoted a section of his show to a public apology to his wife and fellow employees. Three days later, Worldwide Pants declared that Birkitt had been placed on a "paid leave of absence" from the Late Show. On October 15, CBS News announced that the company's Chief Investigative Correspondent, Armen Keteyian, had been assigned to conduct an "in-depth investigation" into Halderman's blackmail of Letterman.
FedEx Case:
Two workers who alleged that they were sexually harassed by a associate brought a case against FedEx. The case resulted in a total finding of fact of $2,328,000, and a current of professional person fees and costs, raising the entire judgment to $4,461,636.40.

The first complainant, Kolainia Hettick, was a 20-year-old handler at the time the harassment started. She alleged that the co-employee culprit romantically pursued her against her needs. His conduct escalated to the purpose wherever it became stalking-like behavior. Despite varied complaints to management, FedEx did very little or nothing to prevent the harassment from occurring. Jana Bryant, a second victim, alleged that the offender blame Jana for Kolainia's lack of interest within the culprit and commenced harassing Jana through obscene gestures and threatening language. Jana complained concerning the harassment, however her complaints weren't taken seriously. FedEx refused to entail the complaints seriously whereas the two plaintiffs and litigator were forced to figure along, and took the position throughout the proceedings and trial that the perpetrator's conduct didn't rise to the amount of unjust harassment, the plaintiffs received no injury, and FedEx did nothing wrong in failing to require additional corrective action.

Winer, McKenna & Burritt, LLP partners, John D. Winer and Alexis McKenna, tried the case, and overcame FedEx's defenses to realize a finding of fact of $1,298,000 on behalf of Kolainia Hettick and a $1,030,000 finding of fact on behalf of Jana Bryant. Two million dollars of the entire finding of fact was for compensation to penalize FedEx for its malicious, oppressive misconduct.

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