Supervisor asked for evidence of harassment — alleged victim sues
March 10, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Harassment, In this week's e-newsletter, Investigations, Latest News & Views
Harassment complaint investigations aren’t always clear-cut — they often end up in “he said, she said” territory, with managers unsure of who to believe or what to do. Here’s how one company handled that situation and avoided legal trouble.
An employee complained to an upper-level manager that her supervisor had sexually harassed her. The response she got: The manager asked for witnesses who could corroborate or other evidence of wrongdoing.
She had nothing to offer, so the company decided it couldn’t do anything.
Eventually, however, another employee complained about the same supervisor. This time, the company got enough proof to investigate and then fire him.
But it didn’t end there: The original complainant sued, claiming she was subjected to more harassment after the company failed to investigate her complaint.
So was the manager’s response to the complaint appropriate? Yes, according to the judge. Companies can’t be expected to automatically believe every complaint they receive — that’s how innocent supervisors get mistakenly fired.
Without anything more to go on, there wasn’t much the manager could do.
Cite: Adams v. O’Reilly Automotive, Inc.
Tags: complaints, evidence, witnesses
March 11th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
I disagree with judge on this one. We take all complaints of harassment, sexual or not, very seriously. At the very least, I would have talked to the manager about the situation, and reminder them of our no-tolerance policy. My knee-jerk reaction wouldn’t be to fire them, but they need to be aware of the situation. Employers can be held responsible for knowing about a situation and doing nothing. And, not all harassment occurs when there are witnesses, that seems odd to me that the judge would rule that way
March 11th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Dawn ~ I agree with your comments. Regardless of witnesses and attempt should have been made to find out if there was any validity to the statements against the supervisor. He also needed to know that complaints had been received about him.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
While I agree that the employee accused should have been made aware of the charges against him, I don’t see how an employer could make any attempts to discover whether the charges were valid or not without any witnesses. The accusee has just as many rights as the accusor; therefore, I think the judge’s decision was a good one.
March 12th, 2009 at 8:06 am
How, odd, I have officially and unofficially complaint about my old supervisor – now super best friend with my new supervisor.
Every time I took the complaint, to the HR director, the ED, other directors, they said they could not do anything because they “never observed” the particular person behaving this way (the ED’s word), so It wook me another year to come up with witnesses and people that would come forward and supportme, no one would do it while still employed by my NON-FOR-PROFIT (taken your tax monies), and still the ED asked me “What do you want to happen” – My reply was, does the Agency have any policies against this type of behaviour.
Nedless to say, they person, also a director and long time friend with the ED (over 30 years) had harrassed and was instrumental to many other “women of color that were in anyway assertive” type. Two of us still in the agency, because we believed in the cause.
This person – the harraser haeven shown me his fits, in anger, which I took it as a bodily threat…
With all the above, the ED still will let the person retire in peace and are organizing their retirement party.
The 2 that he relentlessly persecuted are staying because we believe that HIV/AIDS is a community issue, not just a gay issue, it is also a social justice issue and we do not want to have the name of the agency drag around the mudd by people who will use this opportunity to gaybash and to influence those companies that support the agency.
HOWEVER, I would like to know if the directors in question, the ones I complaint and did nothing to stop the sexually explicit put downs, etc – in my case the call in the middle of the night – drunken and abussive… ARE THEY LIABLE?
March 12th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Given this situation, my response would be to investigate – obviously. This would include anyone who could provide information. If it turned out to be a he said/she said situation at best, the supervisor would be on notice and that would be documented. I would make sure the supervisor knew of our anti-retaliation policy and the accuser knew of our policy against making false accusations (all documented). Terminate the supervisor? No. Not unless the behavior was complained of again with better proof. Employees know thay can sink a supervisor’s career or job with this kind of accusation and I’ve known several who were willing to do that simply because they didn’t want to do their jobs or take appropriate supervision. Supervisors who fear that such a baseless complaint will cost them their job and or career run the risk of employment “blackmail” by the people they supervise. Good investigative skills, ability to read people, and good judgement are the keys.
March 12th, 2009 at 9:21 am
The problem with these articles is that they may not give the whole story. We do not know if the manager was talked to or how extensive an investigation was done. Based on the judges response, it could be assumed the company took the allegation seriously the first time, but without collabrating proof could not do any more than what they did. As soon as they had proof, they were able to terminate the supervisor with no problem. Competent HR people know they have to walk a thin line between doing what is right for the employee making the allegation and the people being accused. Having proof of the allegation is necessary before any steps are taken
March 13th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
I would definitely speak with the supervisor in question and remind them of our harassment policies. I would also ask the person making the accusation to provide any documentation they might have and if none at present, then to document what happens in the future and any potential witnesses. As this type of behavior is often done out of the sight of witnesses, getting a witness can be difficult, but if you make note of the complaint, of having spoken to the person in question and you receive additional complaints from the same employee and/or others in the future, you are building your case that can lead to discharge if necessary. This is always a difficult situation, but something must be documented and at least a general discussion to remind the accused of your policies needs to be done, at a minimum.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Supervisor asked for evidence of harassment? I am a truck driver who has made several incident reports to the GM of my company about male on male sexual harassment by a supervisor who is a locker room bully type. His handle is Big Daddy Leads. The $400.00 an hour corporate lawyer investigated this problem and interogated all witnesses like a police lieutenant. By use of fear and intimidation the investigation was a wash according to this company lawyer. On April 17 a contract laborers body was found raped and beat to death in this companies trailer. The police and FBI are now looking for a transiant named Mike? Again, corporate money and a lack of evidence that this is a hostile work environment. I took all my incident reports to the EEOC on April 28th. In America there are over 500 dead women dumped along our highways and the FBI suspects there are truck driver serial killers out there. Seriously companies should stop looking for loopholes in the evidence and consider safety of their co-workers.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:42 am
what if the surp falsly accused the worker and worker has a wittniss