Legal Question in Sexual Harassment in New York
Sexual Harassment against employer in order to keep job
I work for a country inn. My company hired an extern from a prominent culinary school to perform an externship in the kitchen of the inns' restaurant. The extern only worked for one month. He needed to pass this externship to continue at his school. During the course of his stay he made sexual advances to the Chef. He also made several personal comments about being homosexual and how he wanted to involve himself with the chef and others at his job. He said all of these things to the chef. The chef did not report any of these comments or behavior. the chef considered it just ''nasty kitchen talk''. The extern gave his resignation to the chef. The chef took the resigination and told him that he should leave. The extern then emailed his school and said that the chef sexually harassed him. When actually the extern said all of the things that he stated that the chef said. The extern is now harassing the chef with emails and phone calls. Does the chef have a case for harrasment? The chef and extern are both male and black
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Sexual Harassment against employer in order to keep job
Absolutely. The New York State Human Rights law tracks the Federal law. The U.S. Supreme Court in the Oncale case declared that same sex harassment is still sex harassment. The problem is that the extern is not really an employee any more but a student back at his school. That may have a bearing on jurisdiction.
Re: Sexual Harassment against employer in order to keep job
It is possible that, based on the facts you describe, the chef would have a case for defamation--if the extern is telling other people (you mentioned the chef's employer) something untrue (that the chef sexually harassed him) that injures the chef's reputation, this could be defamation. I am less confident about a harassment case against the extern--it is possible the extern was not (legally) an employee of the inn. Also it would likely be a problem that the chef did not report the extern's conduct--the "nasty talk".
As for the harassing emails and phone calls, I do not know offhand whether there could be any civil liability for this--it seems to me (although I must be clear that I am NOT an expert in criminal law by any means) that if the extern is making harassing phone calls to the chef, this might be a police matter. But I am an employment lawyer, not a criminal lawyer, and cannot really give advice on this--just an uneducated guess. I would advise the chef to hang onto the emails, in any event.
I can discuss any of this in greater depth if you or the chef are interested--please do not hesitate to follow up with an email or phone call--212 867-4754,
Chris Edelson
Related Questions & Answers
Looking for something else?
10,200 active attorneys ready to answer your legal questions today.
Featured Attorneys
Earn additional revenue and grow your business.
