Multiple Harassment Policies Can Hurt Company 12-01-2004
- By Rita Risser, attorney at law

Every employer knows it needs to have a policy and procedure against sexual harassment. But if you have two or three polices intended for difference audiences, you may end up losing a case. That's what happened to Eckerd drug stores.

The case involved a woman employee in the photo lab who was being sexually harassed by her male supervisor. She complained several times to her female supervisor. The supervisor spoke to the offender once. The harassment did not stop, and the employee continued to complain to the female supervisor, but the supervisor did not talk to the man again, nor did she contact the Human Resources Department or her own manager.

The employee filed suit. The company defended itself on the grounds that the employee had not followed the proper procedure to file a harassment complaint. What was the proper procedure? According to the company, the "official" company policy was in the Policy and Procedures Manual, which provided that employees must file with the employee's manager or Human Resources. However, employees were not given copies of this manual.

Instead, employees received an Associate Handbook, which stated complaints must be filed with "management." Employees also saw a policy posted in the break room, which said complaints could be filed with "any supervisor" with whom they felt comfortable.

Since the employee in this case did not file a complaint according to the official manual, the company said she did not follow company procedure.

As you can imagine, the Court of Appeals was not impressed with this argument. Nor was the Court impressed with the fact that the person who did get the complaint - who was a supervisor - did not follow company policy to report the complaint to HR. As a result, the company lost the appeal.

Natson v. Eckerd (Florida Court of Appeals, Oct. 2004)

What this means to you: All supervisors should be trained on the proper way to handle harassment complaints.

Information here is correct at the time it is posted. Case decisions cited here may be reversed. Please do not rely on this information without consulting an attorney first.