Is your company liable for coworker retaliation?

The answer is YES where supervisors knew or should have known about the co-worker harassment, but failed to take prompt and adequate remedial action to stop the abuse.

What can you do to stop managers from acting on urges? Achilles Group suggests a multipronged approach that includes the following:

1. Establish Clear Policies- Publish a policy that prohibits retaliation against employees who make complaints or engage in protected conduct.

2. Create a Multi-Option Complaint System- Establish several means for employees to register complaints. Yes, encourage employees to report a problem so that the organization has a chance to work things out before lawyers and government agencies get involved.

3. Clarify Accountability- Make it clear to managers and supervisors that preventing retaliation is part of their jobs.

4. Insist on a Bipartisan Review- Before adverse actions against managers or employees consider the consequences and have an independent party review the event, outcomes, and action before proceeding.

5. Train, Train, Train- Training … at several levels … is probably the most important anti-retaliation action to teach. Train all employees on the multi-option complaint system.

Illegal Employer Retaliation Defined: In order to establish a case of retaliation an employee must establish that:

(1) He or she engaged in protected activity,

(2) The employer knew of the exercise of the protected right,

(3) An adverse employment action was subsequently taken against the employee, and

(4) There was a causal connection between the protected activity and the adverse employment action. See Morris v. Oldham County Fiscal Ct., 201 F.3d 784, 792 (6th Cir. 2000).

Illegal Co-Worker Retaliation Defined: An employer will be liable for the coworker’s actions if: (1)    The coworker’s retaliatory conduct is sufficiently severe so as to dissuade a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination,

(2)    Supervisors or members of management have actual or constructive knowledge of the coworker’s retaliatory behavior, and

(3)    Supervisors or members of management have condoned, tolerated, or encouraged the acts of retaliation, or have responded to the plaintiff’s complaints so inadequately that the response manifests indifference or unreasonableness under the circumstances. See Burlington Northern, 126 S.Ct. at 2415; Blankenship, 123 F.3d at 872-73.

Best Regards,

Achilles Group Research Team
www.achillesgroup.com/resourcecenter.php

About Achilles Group
Achilles Group becomes the HR Director for small and mid-sized businesses with 25-2,000 employees. Through our HR Shared Services Achilles provides human capital expertise for about half the cost of hiring one internal HR professional.

Typical clients include executives looking for an alternative to building an HR department and companies outgrowing their current HR capabilities.

Started in 2002, Achilles Group provides strategic HR services in support of business goals for more than 17,000 client employees in over 30 states.

10601 Grant Road Suite 202 Houston TX 77070