1. Automatic liability for a company when harassing or discriminatory conduct is taken by supervisors.
A company is automatically liable for any harassment or discriminatory actions taken by its supervisors. Under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), a supervisor is defined as anyone who has the authority to hire, transfer, suspend, layoff, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or the responsibility to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend these actions to the employer.
2. When is a company liable for harassment by non-supervisory employees?
Employers are only liable for harassment in the workplace that it knew about or should have known about, and failed to take corrective action to stop the harassment.
3. Is there personal liability for harassment or discrimination?
There is a difference regarding personal liability for alleged harassment and discrimination. Employees can be held personally liable for harassment, but there is no personal liability for discrimination.
Any employee working for a company covered by FEHA can be held personally liable for harassment that employee engages in. However, a supervisor who did not engage in harassment and who is aware of harassment taking place but fails stop the harassment, cannot be held personally liable for aiding and abetting the harassment. However, obviously, this will create liability for the company.
On the other hand, supervisors are not held personally liable for discrimination or retaliation. This is because the basic job duties of a supervisor could be viewed as discriminatory, acts such as hiring, firing, and setting schedules. Therefore, the courts did not want to impose personal liability on to supervisors for their day-to-day duties. However, it is important to remember that even though the supervisor does not have personal liability for discrimination or retaliation, the employer will always be liable for any proven misconduct.
4. The avoidable consequences doctrine could reduce liability in certain cases.
Under the avoidable consequences doctrine, an employee’s damages can be limited if the employer can show that: (1) it took reasonable step to prevent harassment, (2) the employee unreasonably failed to utilize the procedures put in place by the employer to prevent harassment, and (3) had the employee used the procedure to prevent the harassment some of the damages would have been prevented. Under this defense the employer’s complaint system put in place will be challenged and viewed under high scrutiny. Therefore it is important for employers to show that employee’s who complained in the past had their complaints properly addressed and there was never any retaliation for making the complaint.
5. Revise sexual harassment training in 2015 to include discussion about abusive conduct.
Even though workplace bullying is not illegal under California law, a new law going into effect in 2015 amends the law requiring employers with 50 or more employees to provide sexual harassment prevention training to include a discussion about workplace bullying and abusive conduct.