Legal Question in Sexual Harassment in California

Responsibility for sexual harassment

Both the employer and employees are liable for sexual harassment. Recently, several state court and California's Fair Employment and Housing Commission have also held customers of an employer personally liable for sexually harassing conduct. In turn, employers could also be liable for the sexually harassing conduct of their customers under the current standards. Finally. one California appellate court has held that sexually harassing conduct directed toward certain employees may be sufficient to fix liability to another employee who is not the direct victim of that conduct (i.e. your co-worker who is sitting at the desk near you and can hear the harassing person talking to you).