Sexual Harassment--need advice ASAP
Paige
153 Posts
Kind of a different situation--I'm the HR director of a building where we house tenants. We lease a fitness facility in our building. One of our tennants who is an employee of the fitness facility (therefore, not one of our employees) has come to our general manager saying the manager of the fitness facility is sexually harassing her. What do I do? What are some possible repurcussions for this manager?
Comments
The laws are tricky here: the employees being harassed & harassing do not work for you, but they are tenants in your building. Since you have been contacted by one who is being harassed, you now need to contact the HRD or owner of the fitness facility to report what you know.
Detail all the info reported to you, and also detail how the person reporting the incident(s) appeared, e.g. scared, teary, nervous, shaken, etc. This is one of the few times when subjectie subtlties can and need to be noted. While you are not directly responsible, you can be indirectly named in a suit, which brings your company's name into the papers - and you don't want that. Also, by not reporting the incident to the fitness center's HRD, you put your own employees at risk, because if anyone in your employ is harassed by the fitness manager, then you will be taking these same steps anyway, because you must protect your employees. Also, if anyone in your employ were to get wind of what this manager is doing, that you were made aware of h/her actions and did nothing about it, you can be sued for endangering your staff. You'll win, but the suit can be brought, and you will get publicity.
Bottom line: get busy. Contact your legal rep, if you have one, to help you through the process. If you do not have a legal rep and you are a member of SHRM, contact one of the local mentors (from website, [url]www.shrm.org[/url]).
Good luck, and if you need help off-list, please feel free to contact me. I've done more than my share of Title VII investigations.