Harassment-Free Workplace Act

Summary: Harassment-Free Workplace Act - Makes it an unlawful employment practice for a respondent (employer, employment agency, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee of an apprenticeship, training, or retraining program) to engage in a practice that constitutes sexual harassment as defined under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against an employee or job applicant. Prohibits any action against an employee or applicant in response to a charge or allegation of sexual harassment or participation in an investigation.  Provides for enforcement by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Attorney General, or an aggrieved party.  Allows compensatory and punitive damages, with limitations. 
Requires all respondents to post a notice, prepared or approved by the Commission, describing the applicable provisions of this Act.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Harassment-Free Workplace Act''.

SEC. 2. PURPOSES.

    The purposes of this Act are--
            (1) to provide Federal protection to small business 
        employees from sexual harassment in their workplaces;
            (2) to extend the sexual harassment provisions of current 
        civil rights laws to private sector employers who are not 
        currently covered by Federal law relating to sexual harassment; 
        and
            (3) to authorize the Equal Employment Opportunity 
        Commission to enforce sexual harassment laws with respect to 
        small businesses in the same manner as the Commission currently 
        enforces employment discrimination laws with respect to other 
        businesses.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    As used in this Act:
            (1) Commerce.--The term ``commerce'' means trade, traffic, 
        commerce, transportation, transmission, or communication--
                    (A) among the several States;
                    (B) between a State and any place outside thereof;
                    (C) within the District of Columbia, or a 
                possession of the United States; or
                    (D) between points in the same State but through a 
                point outside thereof.
            (2) Commission.--The term ``Commission'' means the Equal 
        Employment Opportunity Commission established under section 705 
        of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e-4).
            (3) Complaining party.--The term ``complaining party'' 
        means the Commission, the Attorney General, or a person who may 
        bring an action or proceeding under this Act.
            (4) Employee.--The term ``employee'' means an individual 
        employed by an employer, except that the term ``employee'' 
        shall not include any person elected to public office in any 
        State or political subdivision of any State by the qualified 
        voters thereof, or any person chosen by such officer to be on 
        such officer's personal staff, or an appointee on the policy 
        making level or an immediate adviser with respect to the 
        exercise of the constitutional or legal powers of the office. 
        The exemption set forth in the preceding sentence shall not 
        include employees subject to the civil service laws of a State 
        government, governmental agency, or political subdivision. With 
        respect to employment in a foreign country, such term includes 
        an individual who is a citizen of the United States.
            (5) Employer.--The term ``employer'' means a person engaged 
        in an industry affecting commerce who has fewer than fifteen 
        employees for each working day in each of 33 or more calendar 
        weeks in the current and in the preceding calendar year.
            (6) Employment agency.--The term ``employment agency'' 
        means any person regularly undertaking with or without 
        compensation to procure employees for an employer or to procure 
        for employees opportunities to work for an employer, and 
        includes an agent of such a person.
            (7) Industry affecting commerce.--The term ``industry 
        affecting commerce'' means any activity, business, or industry 
        in commerce or in which a labor dispute would hinder or 
        obstruct commerce or the free flow of commerce and includes any 
        activity or industry ``affecting commerce'' within the meaning 
        of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, 
        and further includes any governmental industry, business, or 
        activity.
            (8) Labor organization.--The term ``labor organization'' 
        means a labor organization engaged in an industry affecting 
        commerce, and any agent of such an organization, and includes 
        any organization of any kind, any agency, or employee 
        representation committee, group, association, or plan so 
        engaged in which employees participate and which exists for the 
        purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers 
        concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay 
        hours, or other items or conditions of employment, and any 
        conference, general committee, joint or system board, or joint 
        council so engaged which is subordinate to a national or 
        international labor organization.
            (9) Labor organization deemed to be engaged in an industry 
        affecting commerce.--A labor organization shall be deemed to be 
        engaged in an industry affecting commerce if--
                    (A)(i) it maintains or operates a hiring hall or 
                hiring office which procures employees for an employer 
                or procures for employees opportunities to work for an 
                employer; or
                    (ii) the number of its members (or, where it is a 
                labor organization composed of other labor 
                organizations or their representatives, if the 
                aggregate number of the members of such other labor 
                organizations) is fewer than 15; and
                    (B) such labor organization--
                            (i) is the certified representative of 
                        employees under the provisions of the National 
                        Labor Relations Act or the Railway Labor Act;
                            (ii) although not certified, is a national 
                        or international labor organization or a local 
                        labor organization recognized or acting as the 
                        representative of employees of an employer or 
                        employers engaged in an industry affecting 
                        commerce;
                            (iii) has chartered a local labor 
                        organization or subsidiary body which is 
                        representing or actively seeking to represent 
                        employees of employers within the meaning of 
                        clause (i) or (ii);
                            (iv) has been chartered by a labor 
                        organization representing or actively seeking 
                        to represent employees within the meaning of 
                        clause (i) or (ii) as the local or subordinate 
                        body through which such employees may enjoy 
                        membership or become affiliated with such labor 
                        organization; or
                            (v) is a conference, general committee, 
                        joint or system board, or joint council 
                        subordinate to a national or international 
                        labor organization, which includes a labor 
                        organization engaged in an industry affecting 
                        commerce within the meaning of any of clauses 
                        (i), (ii), (iii), or (iv).
            (10) Person.--The term ``person'' includes one or more 
        individuals, governments, governmental agencies, political 
        subdivisions, labor unions, partnerships, associations, 
        corporations, legal representatives, mutual companies, joint-
        stock companies, trusts, unincorporated organizations, 
        trustees, trustees in cases under title 11, United States Code, 
        or receivers.
            (11) Respondent.--The term ``respondent'' means--
                    (A) an employer, employment agency, labor 
                organization; or
                    (B) a joint labor-management committee controlling 
                apprenticeship or other training or retraining program, 
                including an on-the-job training program, that serves 
                an employer or an employee.
            (12) State.--The term ``State'' includes a State of the 
        United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the 
        Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Wake Island, the Canal 
        Zone, and Outer Continental Shelf lands defined in the Outer 
        Continental Shelf Lands Act.

SEC. 4. SEXUAL HARASSMENT.

    (a) In General.--It shall be an unlawful employment practice for a 
respondent to engage in a practice that constitutes sexual harassment, 
within the meaning of title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 
U.S.C. 2000e et seq.) (including any regulation or administrative 
guideline issued under such title, or any applicable case law issued by 
a Federal court with respect to such title, regarding such harassment) 
against an employee or an applicant for employment with an employer.
    (b) Anti-retaliation.--It shall be an unlawful employment practice 
for a respondent to discriminate against any such employee or applicant 
because the employee or applicant has opposed any practice made an 
unlawful employment practice by this Act, or because the employee or 
applicant has made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in 
any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under this Act.

SEC. 5. ENFORCEMENT, REMEDIES, AND RELATED PROVISIONS.

    (a) Enforcement and Remedies.--
            (1) In general.--This Act provides the powers, remedies, 
        and procedures set forth in sections 705, 706, 707, 709, 710, 
        713, and 714 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e-
        4, 2000e-5, 2000e-6, 2000e-8, 2000e-9, 2000e-12, and 2000e-13) 
        to the Commission, to the Attorney General, or to any person 
        alleging a violation of any provision of this Act, as 
        appropriate.
            (2) Damages.--
                    (A) In general.--Except as provided in subparagraph 
                (B), in an action brought by a complaining party under 
                paragraph (1) in accordance with section 706 of the 
                Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e-5) against a 
                respondent who engaged in a practice that violates a 
                provision of this Act, the complaining party may be 
                awarded compensatory and punitive damages as allowed in 
                section 1977A(b) of the Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 
                1981a(b)), in addition to any relief authorized by 
                section 706(g) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, from 
                the respondent.
                    (B) Limitations.--If--
                            (i) a complaining party is awarded, under 
                        this paragraph, compensatory damages for future 
                        pecuniary losses, emotional pain, suffering, 
                        inconvenience, mental anguish, loss of 
                        enjoyment of life, or other nonpecuniary 
                        losses, or punitive damages; and
                            (ii) on the day on which the complaining 
                        party is awarded damages described in clause 
                        (i) there is in effect under section 1977A of 
                        the Revised Statutes a limit on the sum of the 
                        amount of such damages that may be awarded 
                        under such section in an action in which the 
                        respondent has more than 14 and fewer than 101 
                        employees in each of 20 or more calendar weeks 
                        in the current or preceding calendar year,
                the sum of the amount of such damages that the 
                complaining party may be awarded under this paragraph 
                may not exceed the sum described in clause (ii).
                    (C)  Jury trial.--If a complaining party seeks 
                compensatory or punitive damages under this paragraph--
                            (i) any party may demand a trial by jury; 
                        and
                            (ii) the court shall not inform the jury of 
                        the limitations described in subparagraph (B).
    (b) Extraterritorial Application.--Section 702 of the Civil Rights 
Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e-1) shall apply with respect to the 
application of this Act to an employer, employing agency, labor 
organization, or committee, in the same manner and to the same extent 
as such section applies with respect to the application of title VII of 
such Act (42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.) to an employer, employing agency, 
labor organization, or committee, respectively, as such terms are used 
in such Act.
    (c) Effect on State Laws.--Section 708 of the Civil Rights Act of 
1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e-7) shall apply with respect to the construction 
of this Act in the same manner and to the same extent as such section 
applies with respect to the construction of title VII of such Act.

SEC. 6. POSTING NOTICES.

    (a) Notice.--Every respondent shall post and keep posted, in the 
manner prescribed by section 711 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 
U.S.C. 2000e-10), a notice describing the applicable provisions of this 
Act, to be prepared or approved by the Commission and to appear in an 
accessible format, for employees and applicants for employment with 
employers.
    (b) Penalty.--A willful violation of this section shall be 
punishable by a fine of not more than $100 for each separate offense.

SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    This Act shall take effect 6 months after the date of enactment of 
this Act.