Anonymous Harassment In The Workplace

MaryBR

I received an anonymous phone call from someone who does not work for the company but who has a family member who does. She says that there is widespread sexual harassment as well as intimidation (towards both male and female employees)taking place in one area of the company. I have never been made aware of this problem by anyone who works in that area. What is my legal obligation (if any) to pursue this anonymous information? I will pursue it informally regardless of my legal obligation, but just wanted to know how far I should go with it.

Don D

I think whether or not there's 'a legal obligation' to act is largely irrelevant. It certainly makes no sense NOT to launch an investigation. But, as you say, you're going to investigate anyway. It occurs to me that if you did not investigate based on an assumption that one need not respond to anonymous calls, one might later find the light of 'knew or should have known' cast upon them. I would treat this as seriously as an anonymous call telling me we are dumping chemicals illegally into a stream behind the building. Both could cost you the ranch. You didn't ask for suggestions, so I won't go there.

hrqueen

Its my understanding that whenever information is received from any source that harassment is taking place within the company, there is an obligation to conduct an investigation. Good luck!

Don D

On second thought, I will recommend one thing. You said you would investigate 'informally'. Drop 'informally'.

HS

<What is my legal obligation (if any) to pursue this anonymous information? I <will pursue it informally regardless of my legal obligation, but just wanted <to know how far I should go with it.

Depending on the language of your Sexual Harassment policies (assuming you have one in place) and the laws of your state (?), in my opinion there is nothing to do. If an employee does not make you aware of a harassment situation occuring, you can't investigate the claim. If that "family member" calls again, tell them that the employee has an obligation to come forward so the company can properly investigate the claim. Whose to say that this individual is / isn't who they say they are. Maybe they have something against a certain person in that department and are making a false claim against them. Your company should be free of any legal obligations if your employees haven't told you about it.

On a side note, you may yourself want to "keep an eye" on that department for any unusual or suspect behavior without sending up any alarms. (You are in HR, correct? If not, have your HR rep do this.) Or better yet, you may want to redistribute your policies to ALL employees and make sure that they know their obligation to report any violations of your policies; CONFIDENTIALLY.

Gillian

One note of caution. Sometimes anonymous calls can be made for spite, retaliation or whatever. I think that the old days where anonymous calls were ignored are over, but it would be a good idea to be cautious. Is there some way of guaging the potential before you do a full investigation? Are there incidents from the past which might lend credence to the call? Do you have individuals that will talk to you privately ahead of time who would give you a sense of whether there is a problem, or isn't? The call may be accurate, but if it isn't there is the risk of a lot of embarassment and damaged reputations if an investigation is completed and you find nothing.

Margaret Morford

I would investigate and document. Simply interview a cross section of the employees and asked if they have ever been subjected to ...? Heve they ever seen anyone subjected to ...? Even if you don't turn up anything, you have a record of asking and you have employees on record so they have difficulty jumping on the band wagon later.

I have used an outside firm that does this routinely by telephone for companies looking for ethics violations, fraud, illegal activity, etc.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]