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What Must a Company Do When a Sexual Harassment Claim is Made?

Are you being sexually harassed at work?  We have created a series of educational videos explaining what constitutes illegal workplace sexual harassment, and what you can do if you are being sexually harassed. 

In our third video, New York Employment Attorney Jack Tuckner explains what a company should do after a sexual harassment report is made.  

 

This is Jack Tuckner, again, with the third installment in our sexual harassment series of videos, to educate you on what you should do and what you need to know if you’re being sexually harassed in the workplace. In the first two videos, we discussed what is sexual harassment, and what to do about it if you’re suffering from it. In this video, I want to discuss briefly what your company must do when you complain about sexual harassment, which is illegal sex discrimination, a civil right’s violation.

Companies Must Investigate Sexual Harassment Complaints

When your company learns, for the first time, that you believe you’re being sexually harassed, they must promptly investigate that protected complaint. And they must tell you that they are an equal opportunity employer that takes complaints like this very seriously in this company, and that they will be investigating it. And they will not be retaliating against you, and that they will be keeping it confidential as much as possible, while still investigating, and speaking to people that may be involved, or witnesses to your allegations.

Document Your Conversations with Management

And when you make this complaint and sit down with your company’s human resource director, or whomever they delegate to investigate your allegations, you should then document that conversation back to them that evening, or the next day in order to continue with your paper trail to your company. And then your company will call you back to tell you how it has gone, in terms of the investigation, and what they intend to do to effectuate what’s known as, corrective, or remedial action.

 

What is the Company Going to Do?

In other words, how are they going to resolve this? How are they going to protect you? What are they going to do about your complaint, so that you feel that they’re taking you seriously, and that you’re no longer frightened or scared or distressed about the sexualization or objectification or hostile work environment that you’re suffering in. They must do that. And you want to make sure that you have documentary proof of what they’re doing and saying, and what you’re doing and saying.

Hence, that’s why you continue with the email paper trail until the investigation is completed. If you’re not satisfied with what the investigation results are, we will discuss what your options are in the next video in this series.

If this video was helpful to you, please “like” it above and subscribe to this YouTube channel. And if you have questions about your own workplace challenges, feel free to ask the question right here, and I’ll do my best to answer it, or email me, Jack Tuckner, or call me in our New York City or Mid-Hudson Valley office, and we’ll consult with you free of charge and in total confidence.

Until next time, thank you.

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Learn what constitutes sexual harassment, what you should do to stop it, how to report it, and how to protect your rights in the event of backlash in the workplace.

Download our Sex Harassment Guide 2019.

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