Sexual harassment: bad for business.

• Author: Bauman, Margaret
• Position: Includes related articles

When a North Slope oil company dismissed a woman on its clerical staff in October 1994, three days after she complained of sexual assault, she was told the firm was merely reducing its work force.

The woman didn't believe it, and neither did the Alaska Superior Court jury, which awarded her $75,000 in lost wages and $1.5 million in punitive damages, on that and related charges.

While that case is in appeal, the message is clear, say attorneys on both sides of a growing number of legal cases stemming from reports of sexual harassment in the workplace. That message is to educate all employees and to take those complaints very seriously.

"Have a policy, train supervisors and employees alike in respect to what sexual harassment is and what it is not," says Kimberly Gearietty, of Partnow, Sharrock and Tindall, an Anchorage law firm.

Employers need a policy that prohibits sexual harassment and provides clear understanding of what is expected and what the consequences are. Also needed is a grievance procedure, so someone who feels harassed has somewhere immediately to go and have the complaint investigated, Gearietty says.

"They (supervisors) have to take complaints seriously," says Robert Owens, of Copeland Landye Bennett & Wolf, also of Anchorage. "They have to adequately investigate them to find out if what was alleged really happened. If they are mature and responsible in dealing with these problems, they can avoid liability.

"There is a certain reluctance to look under the rug, if you will," says Owens, who is co-counsel for the plaintiff in the North Slope case. "Management often fails to do a thorough investigation and find out if they genuinely do have a problem on their hands."

Define the Problem

Current law defines two basic types of sexual harassment in the workplace. The first is when an employee suffers or is threatened with some kind of financial injury. Someone with authority over the employee demands that the employee submit to sexual requests or be fired, demoted or passed over for promotion. This type of harassment is called quid pro quo, or "this for that." The law says it can be committed only by someone in the organization who has power to control the victim's job future.

The second kind of sexual harassment is called hostile environment. This kind of harassment occurs when a supervisor, co-worker or another person with whom the victim is in contact on the job creates an abusive work environment or interferes with the...