Legal Question in Discrimination Law in California

Re: Harassment at work

Thank you for your inquiry.

You should take steps to immediately document who was assigned to take these calls, when the calls were made, and the fact that they were not returned. It does not seem that you truly have a "harassment" situation here.

Employers can be held strictly liable under federal law for the harassing acts of a supervisory employee if those actions resulted in an adverse tangible employment action (such as termination or demotion). If no such action occurred, the employer is not "off the hook" but has the opportunity to advance an affirmative defense based essentially on reasonable care and due diligence.

An employer must exercise reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any harassing behavior; and (2) you, as the employee, must not have unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventative or corrective opportunities provided by the employer or to otherwise avoid harm. (Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth, 118 S. Ct. 2257, 141 L.Ed.2d 633 (1998) and Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 118 S. Ct. 2275, 141 L.Ed.2d 662 (1998))

You may also want to take whatever steps you need to make the customers happy, so they will not continue to put pressure on your bosses to see something negative to you happen.

I hope that this information helps, but if you have other questions, need more information, or feel that you need legal representation, please feel free to contact me directly at [email protected]. I am happy to help in any way that I can.

Re: Harassment at work

Protect yourself: write a response to your file just like what you put here, and request HR intervention. If fired or disciplined, then contact me to discuss facts and value of case.