Sexual harassment in the Utah workplace: preventing claims.

• Author: Smith, Janet Hugie

SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE UTAH WORKPLACE

In recent years, employers have made considerable progress toward eliminating intentional discrimination against all people in the workplace. More subtle forms of discrimination, such as sexual harassment, however, still pose obstacles to working women. (While sexual harassment charges have been brought by men, the majority are filed by women.) In Utah, the number of sexual harassment claims are increasing. The Utah Anti-Discrimination Division reports that from October 1989 to September 1990, the agency received 67 claims of sexual harassment. In the following fiscal year, there were 90 claims. In October 1991, three times the number of sexual harassment complaints were filed as compared to the previous year.

Sexual harassment may take many forms--verbal, visual or physical. It may include repeated offensive sexual flirtations, sexual advances, graphic comments about an individual or her body. It may consist of degrading words or names or sexually suggestive displays, pictures, or objects.

Defining Sexual Harassment

Two types of sexual harassment have been recognized: (1) quid pro quo, and (2) hostile work environment. Quid pro quo sexual harassment occurs when submission to such conduct is made a condition of employment or when job benefits, such as a promotion or a raise, depend on the submission to or rejection of sexual advances. In a hostile work environment, the conduct of a co-employer or supervisor unreasonably affects or interferes with the employee's work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.

Courts generally look to the "totality of the circumstances" to determine if the conduct is so severe or pervasive that it creates a hostile work environment. This would include the nature of the offensive conduct, how frequently it occurs, who is doing it (a supervisor or a co-worker), and the reasonableness of the complainant's reaction. Crude comments about women, posters depicting women in degrading light, or sexually oriented jokes may be sufficient to constitute a sexually hostile environment. Offensive conduct, however, does not always have to be sexual. Two female police officers in Philadelphia alleged that they had been subject to foul and abusive language, that their property had been destroyed, and that they had received threatening phone calls. The employer argued that the conduct was not sexual. The court held that overt sexual conduct is not...