Bullying in the Workplace – What Employers Need to Know

What happens when an employee reports a bullying incident on the plant floor or in the office, or for that matter, while at the company’s holiday party? Is that something that corporate management need to be concerned about?

 

As of today, a private cause of action for workplace bullying does not exist; unless, of course, that bullying is in reference to a protected class under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.  We have seen cases like this.  For instance, last year there was a significant settlement where an employee was the subject of verbal abuse, taunting gestures of a sexual nature, and another employee exposing himself.  In this case the “supervisor admitted at the trial that he harassed [the employee] because he thought [he] was feminine and did not conform to the supervisor’s gender stereotypes of “rough iron workers.”  EEOC Press Release, “Boh Bros. Construction Co. to Pay $125,000 for Same-Sex Harassment in EEOC Lawsuit,” February 27, 2014.

 

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