Legal Question in Sexual Harassment in New York

My son who just began the job, commented to a female employee that her new haircut looked nice. She said thank you. Within the hour, he was called into the Supervisors office, asked if what she had said was true, he said it was, and he was fired for Sexual Harassment.

Was this legal ? Does he have any recourse ?

Thx.


Asked on 9/29/09, 4:27 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Locksley Wade Law Office of Locksley O. Wade

Sexual harassment is generally defined as making "Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment." If your son did any of the mentioned acts then he should be fired. If on the other hand he did not none of the mentioned acts, he can still be terminated for any reason or no reason given that this is a right to work State. There is more to the story than what your son may or may not know. Therefore, I would recommend that he looks for a new job without dwelling on the acts of this employer unless he believes that he is a victim of race, gender, sexual, nationality, or disability discrimination.

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Answered on 10/05/09, 7:57 am


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