All Rights Reserved. The Court's rulings made it clear that an employer can be liable for sexual harassment even if it is unaware of the harassment and even if the victim of the harassment suffers no negative job consequences, such as a demotion or dismissal. But, the Court also outlined a path for employers to avoid liability by creating a written anti-harassment policy, making sure that all employees are aware of it and providing a compliance and investigation procedure to combat any harassment that occurs. While small businesses may believe they're immune to the recent rulings, they very well may not be.
State laws are a different matter.
If a small business has 15 or more employees in any 20 weeks of the year, the law will cover the employees. In the first case, Burlington Industries v. Ellerth , an employee claimed that she quit after being subjected to repeated harassment from her supervisor's boss. This employee had not told anyone else about the incidents, although she knew that the company had a policy against sexual harassment. In Faragher v. Boca Raton , the employee was a lifeguard who alleged that she had been subjected to harassment over an extended period of time by two of her supervisors. In that case, the employee had confided in a third supervisor, but that supervisor had not informed upper management.