Take action immediately. Train all levels of employment about the prevention of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is against the law. The majority of sexual harassment lawsuits that have been filed were filed against employers who have written policies prohibiting sexual harassment and who had postings on their employee bulletin board notifying employees that sexual harassment was against the law. Neither of these methods stopped the harassment, or assured employees a non-threatening procedure for reporting the harassment.
Sexual harassment is the most frequent type of discrimination charge filed by workers today.
The Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports an increase form 6,883 complaints in 1991 to 15,549 complaints in 1995. It continues to be the number 1 discrimination charge filed against employers with no signs of abatement. In California, Government Code Section 12950 requires all employers to provide their employees with a method for reporting sexual harassment. Even federal courts are echoing the need for today's employer to implement a strong complaint reporting procedure that is accessible to their employees. Employers in the U.S., both large and small collectively, spend billions of dollars in legal fees, compensatory, and punitive damages each year because of sexual harassment claims.