"Hostile environment" or "Environmental harassment" which is the right term for sexual harassment? 11-07-2007
- By Rita Risser and Ann Kiernan, Attorneys at law

We've heard some trainers recently use the term "environmental harassment" to describe what we've been calling a "hostile environment." Who cares what words trainers use? You would if you were sued for harassment and you learned the wrong terms, because you will be asked if you had any training and what you learned. So we set out to answer the question, "Has the term hostile environment been abandoned by the courts?"

In the two leading U. S. Supreme Court cases on the subject, Burlington v. Ellerth and Faragher v. City of Boca Raton (both 1998), the Court noted that the terms "hostile environment" and "quid pro quo" have "limited utility" in determining whether an employer is strictly liable for the conduct of supervisors. However, the Court said, to the extent the terms illustrate the distinction between cases involving a carried-out threat and offensive conduct in general, they are relevant when there is a threshold question whether a plaintiff can prove harassment. The Court went on to characterize Ellerth's claim as hostile environment. The Supreme Court continued to use the terms in Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders (2004), where the Court said that Ellerth and Faragher "delineate two categories of hostile work environment claims."

Similarly, in the most recent California Supreme Court case, Miller v. Dept. of Corrections (2005), the Court used the terms "quid pro quo" and "hostile work environment harassment," noting that "the two theories of liability are intertwined."

We have been able to find only a handful of opinions in a minority of court cases that use the phrase "environmental harassment."

What you should do: Make sure that your live trainings, webinars and on-line solutions use the term "hostile environment." Fair Measures always uses the language used by the courts, both in our live trainings and webinars. We prefer not to make up terms that could be subject to interpretation or misinterpretation.

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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.