You manage HR at a bank. A female employee has recently resi…
You manage HR at a bank. A female employee has recently resigned from the company and filed a sexual harassment complaint with the EEOC against your company. Her allegations are: For the past three years, one of her male co-workers has propositioned her for sex on a regular basis. She says she has always said no, and has requested that he stop, but he has not stopped. She claims other employees, including her supervisor, knew about this, but never did anything about it, and even at times joked about it. In addition to propositioning her, she claims he has also groped her at work, and has attempted to kiss her. Her complaint admits that she was not fired, but she says she had to resign because working at the company had become impossible, and she was experiencing mental health problems due to this harassment. Your internal company records reflect: This employee has not made any formal claims of sexual harassment. Your company does have a sexual harassment policy that encourages employees to report allegations of sexual harassment, and provides the channels for doing so. You do not have a signed acknowledgement form of this sexual harassment policy from the employee, but you do have an attendance list showing that she attended training on the sexual harassment policy, which you administered. The employee has had average to below average performance reviews. At the time she resigned, she was not in danger of being fired, but she wasn’t a top performer either. The co-worker she accuses of harassing her does not have any records of sexual harassment complaints against him. In an essay form, provide your analysis of this complaint and what steps you would take as an HR manager now that you are aware of it. Issues you address should include (but are not limited to): What type of legal claim under Title VII is she be asserting here? What additional information do you need to evaluate her claim, and how would you start obtaining it? What legal defenses does your company have against this complaint? Make sure you fully explain the legal bases for your defense, as well as your analysis of how likely you are to be successful.
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