Harassment
Carolsmith
29 Posts
A female employee was smacked on the backside while bent over by an employee who was just promoted to a supervisor (not her supervisor though). They were in the receiving area and she was bent over going through some boxes of products and he walked by and smack. She hit him in the chest and was very upset (yelling at him). There were witnesses and he immediately began saying "I'm sorry." over and over again. She was embarassed because the other three males laughed even though she said later she found out that they were laughing at him for being so stupid. This happened on a Friday just before quitting time. She did not come to the HR department as instructed in the handbook. She went to his boss and vented loudly when another manager heard her she informed her that she needed to inform the HR Director as instructed in the handbook. She said she would think about it. AT 4:20 P.M. on Monday she reduced the information in writing and said she feels that what has happened and by her complaining will affect her employment with other males and that the manager that told her to come to HR was insensitive and made her feel as though she did something wrong and that she was over reacting because the manager kept telling her to calm down. AT 8:00 A.M. Monday morning the "smacker" went to the CFO, (had worked years ago at the same company with the CFO) he told him what he did and that it was a reaction and that he apologized over and over to her and that he was sorry. The female feels that he should be demoted back to his present position and is using all the right words (sounds like a law suit coming up). What type of discipline would be appropriate? My thoughts were to send him to sensitivity training and we were planning on him attending supervisory training. Also, would three days off without pay be appropriate. In my 8.5 years with this company, I have not had any harassment or sexual harrassment incidences. We train a lot in these areas. Let me hear from others with similar situations.
Comments
I agree with the suggested responses already given, provided the new "supervisor" hasn't already received sexual harassment training. However, if this individual has attended sexual harassment training, then I think removing him (demotion) from a supervisory position/role would be the best course of action -- both to get the message out that the company doesn't tolerate such behavior from its managers, and also to protect the company from future potential liability should this individual again choose to impulsively ignore the training and corrective action provided by the company.
Additionally, your company should look at how it prepares its employees for promotion into supervision. It is an absolute must that sexual harassment training be provided to new (and current) supervisors, in order to establish your defense against liability -- (along with having a complaint process known and available to all employees).
>emempt employee for less than a week and not a
>safety violation is an issue.
It is legal to give unpaid disciplinary suspensions of one or more full days for workplace conduct rule infractions.
>than one week, it can only be for a major safety
>violation. That was the reason I recommended one
>week unpaid suspension.
Once again the Forum comes through!! I thought the regs went into effect in April, but I now see they won't be effective until August 21. We just suspended an exempt associate for two days this week. We weren't going to pay him. I'm glad I learned about this before payday. I'm sure he'll be pleased to find out he must be paid for those days. Thanks.