HR spends a lot of time and energy preventing harassment by supervisors. But what if a worker’s harassed by a customer or other non-employee? Can you be held liable?
Answer: It depends.
If some preventive or corrective action was possible, but the company didn’t take it, that could result in a lawsuit. For example:
A representative from a vendor you do business with comes on site regularly. One of your employees complains that he’s sexually harassed her. The company has a few options, such as telling someone at his company about the complaint or making sure the accuser has no future contact with him.
If no additional actions are taken, it’s likely the company could wind up in court.
As with harassment by your employees, the keys to staying safe are: 1) training your managers to look out for it, and 2) dealing with complaints promptly.
