Archive for sexual harassment

EEOC Issues Long-Awaited Report on Harassment in the Workplace

In January 2015, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) established a special task force to study harassment in the workplace.  That task force spent a year and a half studying the “myriad and complex issues” involved in workplace harassment.  Last month, the EEOC task force published their…

New Regulations on Sexual Harassment Take Effect Today

The California Fair Employment & Housing Council (FEHC) recently passed new regulations that strengthen California’s Fair Employment & Housing Act (FEHA).  This is the state law banning discrimination, harassment, and retaliation in the workplace, which is already among the toughest in the nation.  These new regulations take effect…

Governor Brown Signs Bill Clarifying Same-Sex Sexual Harassment Standards

California’s Fair Employment & Housing Act (“FEHA”) already prohibits discrimination and harassment “based on sex.”  Most people properly understand the term “sex” in this context to equate to “gender” or “gender identity.”  Thus, most people understand that it is illegal for an employer to treat a female employee…

U.S. Supreme Court Puts New Limits on Harassment Claims under Title VII

Back in 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court announced two important decisions that clarified the scope of an employer’s liability for workplace sexual harassment under Title VII.  These two cases are Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775 (1998), and Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742 (1998),…