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PRACTICE AREAS |
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Sexual Harassment
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“Quid Pro Quo” Harassment
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Hostile Work Environment
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Pregnancy Discrimination
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Sexual Harassment in Business, Service and Professional Relationships
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Retaliation
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| Sexual Harassment and Discrimination |
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Sexual harassment can include unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, verbal conduct, or physical conduct which
affect or interfere with an individual’s work performance or create an offensive work environment for that individual. |
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| Sexual discrimination can include denial due to gender or sexual orientation. Individuals who feel that they are a victim of sexual harassment or discrimination must take action right away. Employers are obligated to put an end to such conduct immediately. |
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The Broderick Law Firm believes strongly in the fair treatment of all individuals regardless of sex and is committed to representing individuals who have been victims of sexual harassment in the workplace. Mr. Broderick has the experience and knowledge
necessary to help you recover the damages you are due. He will vigorously pursue your claim of sexual harassment or sexual discrimination to get you a positive result. |
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| "Quid Pro Quo" Sexual Harassment |
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“Quid Pro Quo” sexual harassment is when a supervisor makes sexual conduct of an employee a condition for employment benefits or advancement or a condition for avoiding adverse employment action. Adverse employment action may include poor performance
reviews and preclusion from advancement or salary increases. |
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In order to prove “quid pro quo” sexual harassment, you must show by a preponderance of the evidence the harasser made
unwanted sexual advances or directed behavior of a sexual nature to you as a condition for receiving concrete employee benefits
and/or for avoiding adverse employment action. A “preponderance of the evidence” means that after looking at all the evidence,
it is more likely than not that the claimed events occurred.
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| Pregnancy Discrimination |
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The Broderick Law Firm stands up for the rights of pregnant employees, parents seeking leave to care for their children, and gender discrimination against women.
Victims of pregnancy discrimination are protected under several pregnancy discrimination acts. Pregnant employees have the right to take leave from work. Parents of newborn children also have the right to have leave to care for and bond with their newborn children.
It is also illegal for employers to discriminate based on the potential for a female employee to become pregnant, which is called maternal profiling. Employers are prohibited from terminating employees based on pregnancy.
An employer may not refuse to hire a woman because she has children or if she plans to have children.
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| Sexual Harassment in Business, Service, and Professional Relationships |
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Sexual harassment in business, service, and professional relationships is prohibited under California Civil Code Section 51.9. Both Quid Pro Quo and Hostile Work Environment sexual harassment are prohibited in business, service, and professional relationships.
Sexual harassment occurs in a business, service, and professional relationship when there is an inability by the victim to easily terminate the relationship and where the perpetrator has made sexual advances, solicitations, sexual requests, demands for sexual compliance from the victim, or engaged in other verbal, visual, or physical conduct of a sexual nature or a hostile nature based on gender, provided the acts are unwelcome and provided the acts are either pervasive or severe.
The determination of whether a hostile act is sufficiently pervasive or severe as to constitute sexual harassment is determined by the courts under the same analysis that the courts use for determining whether there is sexual harassment in the workplace. Within the context of a relationship that cannot be easily terminated, victims must show either very severe incidents of harassment generally akin to a sexual assault or threat thereof, or pervasive harassment, which is a repeated pattern of harassment. The harassment must be sufficient to alter the conditions of the victim’s employment and create an abusive environment.
In addition, a claim for sexual harassment in a business, service, or professional relationship must include damages. The damages may include that the victim has suffered or will suffer economic loss or disadvantage or a personal injury, including, but not limited to, emotional distress or the violation of a statutory or constitutional right, as a result of the sexual harassment. Pursuant to Civil Code Section 52, a victim can be entitled to exemplary (punitive) damages and an award of attorney’s fees. |
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| Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment |
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Hostile work environment sexual harassment occurs when an employee is subject to unwelcome advances or the use sexual innuendos
or offensive gender-related language that is sufficiently severe or pervasive from the perspective of a reasonable person with the
same fundamental characteristics as the offended employee. |
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This type of harassment must be sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the offended employee’s employment and create an abusive environment. A single instance of sexual harassment in the “hostile work environment” context may be sufficient,
but repeated instances increase the severity of the events, so that a reasonable person would be more likely to find the conduct
sexually harassing due to its repetition. |
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| It is possible for an employee to make a hostile work environment claim when the harassment is not directly directed to the complaining employee, if the harassment permeated the complaining employee’s work environment. Thus, an employee can make a hostile work environment claim if the employee witnessed the harassing conduct and the conduct was severe or pervasive enough to be considered harassment by a reasonable person with the same fundamental characteristics as the complaining employee. |
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| In regard to unwanted sexual advances, a complaining employee must generally show that he or she gave notice that the advances are unwelcome. |
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Although favoritism by a supervisor towards an employee with whom the supervisor is having a consensual sexual affair does not
ordinarily constitute harassment of other employees, a pattern of sexual favoritism may constitute a hostile work environment in
the event that the message by management is that sexual affairs are a way to get ahead in the workplace.
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| Retaliation |
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| It is illegal for an employer to retaliate against a sexual harassment or discrimination victim for filing a charge with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, participating in a sexual harassment investigation, or opposing discriminatory practices. |
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| FEHA at California Government Code Section 12940(h) declares that it is an unlawful employment practice for an employer “to discharge, expel or otherwise discriminate against any person because the person has opposed any practices forbidden under this part” (referring to Section 12940 which prohibits, among other things, sexual harassment and gender discrimination) “or because the person has filed a complaint, testified, or assisted an any proceeding under this part.” A violation of California Government Code Section 12940(h) is referred to as retaliation. The federal Title VII has a similar anti-retaliation provision. A typical retaliation claim arises if an employee makes a claim of sexual harassment or gender discrimination and the employer responds with some type of adverse employment action against the employee. |
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| If, for example, an employee makes a claim of sexual harassment that does meet the legal criteria of being sufficiently severe or pervasive, then the employer retaliates with adverse employment action against the employee, the employee still has the claim for retaliation independent of the merits of the sexual harassment claim that triggered the retaliation. When the underlying claim for sexual harassment has legal merit and the employee has suffered retaliation in addition, the employee will typically bring claims for both sexual harassment and retaliation. |
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