Sexual Harrasment

Sexual Harassment

According to the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC , unwelcome sexual advances , requests for sexual favors , and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature is said to constitute sexual harassment if such advances , requests or conducts interferes with the employees work performance or creates a hostile or offensive work environment or submission to such behavior is made a work condition and rejection of the same would affect the employee 's future in the workplace . In the early stages , sexual harassment without any direct economic consequence was not

considered as affecting condition of employment and hence did not fall under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act , 1964 . However , with more cases of Sexual Harassment coming to Courts and with the emergence of case law , two types of sexual harassment claims were defined . The first type of sexual harassment claims was the Quid Pro Quo claims where refusal to succumb to such sexual advances or requests leads to serious economic loss and the second type is the hostile work environment claims where the person cannot work or perform peacefully and is subject to hostile treatment (Robinson , Allen , Franklin Duhon , 1993

The EEOC guidelines specify that all companies , establishments and institutions should have their own policy and complaints mechanisms to tackle the issue of Sexual harassment at workplace . Most educational institutions and companies have laid down their policies based on the policy guidelines issued by the EEOC . One such company , Reynolds American Inc , has laid down its policy to tackle sexual harassment in its Code of Conduct . Chapter XVIII of the Code of Conduct of Reynolds American Inc . deals with Equal Employment Opportunity , Affirmative Action and Workplace Diversity and Chapter XIX deals with No Harassment Policy . These chapters specify that no employee shall be discriminated on the basis of race , color , religion , sex etc and also that the company shall strive to maintain an atmosphere free from sexual and other forms of harassment . The prohibition against harassment of this particular company covers harassment by supervisors , co-workers , outsiders like clients etc . The No Harassment Policy clearly states that Any employee who engages in any action or conduct constituting harassment will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment ( Code of Conduct

The sexual harassment policy of Reynolds American Inc . includes the definition of sexual harassment , instances when sexual harassment may occur , conduct that constitutes sexual harassment , complaint mechanisms and remedies . According to the policy , sexual harassment is any deliberate , unsolicited deliberate , unsolicited , unwanted and unwelcome sexual overtures , or the creation of an intimidating , hostile or offensive working environment through repetitive inappropriate verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature (Code of conduct . It goes on to clarify that only when such behavior is used by an employee to control or affect another employee 's work or to create a hostile working environment that it will constitute sexual harassment . The policy goes on to clarify that conduct is not restricted to actual advances or requests...