Sexual harassment is a workplace issue that has gained more momentum and public awareness over the past two decades. It is an issue that is often confusing, hard to define and one that can end up costing employers millions of dollars in lawsuits. One of the most difficult elements of workplace sexual harassment is knowing where to draw the line. For example, is making a sexual comment about a female employee considered sexual harassment to the degree that making overt sexual advances are, ones that when rebuffed lead to ostracism and dismissal of the employee. If we look at a recent case involving the city of New York as employer, we can see that when it comes to accountability, at this point in sexual harassment history and law, the employer needs to be very accountable. If we look at two articles dealing with a successful sexual harassment suit brought against the City of New York and one on recent legislation on the issue from the U.S. Supreme Court, we see that in both cases and in nearly all such cases the employer needs to be more accountable. In recent sexual harassment guidelines issued by the Supreme Court, “The court made it clear that employers are always legally responsible for the harassing behavior of supervisors. But it made the world a bit safer for employers by offering them a defense: an effective anti-harassment policy and complain procedures that employees disregard at their own risk” (Slade 1).
However, despite these guidelines we see that many employer fail to make policies aimed at effective anti-harassment measures. This is true even when the employer is the government. In a recent lawsuit brought against the city of New York and the Giuliani administration, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled that the administration “violated Federal law when it turned away women who said they were being sexually harassed while working f
...