How can we protect our employees from third-party harassment, such as from a vendor or a customer?
Quick Answer
Develop and implement a harassment policy that specifically bans harassment by third parties, and communicate the policy to third parties whose employees or agents have contact with your employees.
Legal Perspective
Spilman Thomas & Battle
Morgantown, West Virginia
First things first: An employer’s obligation is always to timely investigate and take prompt remedial action, says employment law attorney Heather Garrison.
Here are practical tips to help employers protect employees from third-party harassment:
- Ensure that your harassment policy covers harassment by third parties, including customers, clients, contractors, and vendors. Make sure employees know how to bring forth complaints against these third parties. Remember, an employer is liable for harassment by a third party when it knew or should have known of the conduct and failed to take timely remedial measures.
- Communicate your harassment and discrimination policies to third parties such as vendors, independent contractors, and consultants. An employer has the right to bar such third parties from the property if they are harassing or discriminating against employees.
- Consider a harassment policy that goes beyond legally protected conduct to include any type of offensive conduct. Inappropriate conduct that may not rise to the level of actionable harassment should still be brought to the employer’s attention and remedied.
- Train managers on how to recognize harassment and establish a clear procedure on how to respond. Claims of harassment by third parties should be treated the same as claims of harassment by co-workers. Make sure managers know what steps they need to take upon learning of such third-party harassment.
Relevant Case Law
EEOC v. Costco Wholesale Corp.
Lockhard v. Pizza Hut, Inc.
Powell v. Las Vegas Hilton Corp.
HR Insight
Candle Warmers Etc.
West Jordan, Utah
Contact the vendor to make them aware and notify them in writing that the harassment must stop immediately, says HR Generalist Melissa Birch.
Ensure the employee isn’t around when the third party stops by or remove the employee from having to work with that vendor specifically. Instead, have someone else deal with them.
Stop the offender from coming into the workplace going forward. Get a new vendor if the harassment continues and the company that employs the harasser refuses to intercede.
CertiK
New York, New York
Continually train your employees on what harassment is and what it means, says HR Leader Erin ImHof.
When arranging contracts with vendors and customers, inform them of your harassment policy so they are aware of it.
Take action if someone complains; you want to show your employees that you have zero tolerance for harassment and make an example out of the offenders. You can’t protect everyone from each situation but by training your employees on harassment, they should be able to identify it and know the proper steps to take if they are a victim.
And the company must take action to set the tone for a zero-tolerance environment.
Town of Geddes
Syracuse, New York
The fundamental step to preventing third-party harassment in the workplace is to ensure company leaders and supervisors get relevant training on how to handle accusations of third-party harassment so that they can get addressed efficiently and manage everyone involved sensitively. Harassment training is to be administered yearly and should include more than harassment within the workplace.
The Cost of Noncompliance
Union pays $85K to settle sexual harassment case
Who was involved: Teamsters Local Union # 455, a labor union with locations in Denver and Fort Morgan, Colorado, and a female union member.
What happened: According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, the woman – a UPS manager – had a scheduled meeting to discuss grievances. At the meeting, a male business agent of the union sexually harassed the woman. He subsequently pleaded guilty to criminal charges stemming from the same incident.
Result: The union agreed to pay $85,000 to settle the dispute. Under a consent decree, it also had to:
- Review and update its anti-discrimination policies to include a strong and clear commitment to preventing unlawful sex discrimination and harassment.
- Provide training to its officers, agents, and employees.
- Post an informational flyer about workplace sex harassment at its Colorado office locations and on union bulletin boards at employer business locations where members are employed.
Info: Union Settles EEOC Sexual Harassment Case, 7/12/23.
Employer allegedly fails to protect employee from regular customer: Company pays $50K
Who was involved: Houchens Food Group, Inc., owner and operator of Pic-N-Sav grocery stores in several states and headquartered in Kentucky, and a female employee at an Alabama store.
What happened: The EEOC’s lawsuit claimed several female employees at an Alabama location were subjected to frequent, unwelcome sexual touching by a regular customer of the store. The alleged harassment continued for at least five years, from 2015 to 2020. According to the suit, the women repeatedly complained to supervisors, but no action was taken. In June 2020, one employee called the police, who issued a no-trespass order to the man. Even so, managers purportedly failed to take action when the customer visited the store and continued to harass the women. This amounted to violations of Title VII, which prohibits a hostile environment based on sexual harassment in the workplace, the EEOC said.
Result: The company agreed to pay $50,000 to one victim of the harassment. Under a four-year consent decree, the company had to:
- Develop or revise policies and procedures to prevent and correct sexual harassment.
- Conduct annual training for employees and managers in the location of the alleged harassment and 15 other stores in Alabama.
- Submit to periodic EEOC monitoring for the duration of the consent decree.
Info: Houchens Food Group to Pay $50K to Settle Sexual Harassment Lawsuit, 7/10/23.
EEOC says caregivers were sexually harassed while working in client’s home: Company pays $250K
Who was involved: Joyvida, LLC, which operates under the name Amada Senior Care and provides personal care services in the Colorado Springs, Denver and Pueblo areas, and five former female employees who worked as caregivers in the homes of patient-clients.
What happened: According to the EEOC, the company violated Title VII by failing to appropriately respond after the caregivers reported they were being sexually harassed while working in a client’s home and also retaliating against the caregivers who reported the harassment. Specifically, the EEOC alleged the caregivers were verbally and physically harassed by a client’s adult son. The alleged harassment included the man making inappropriate comments about the caregivers’ bodies, non-consensual touching, physically cornering the caregivers, exposing his genitals to the caregivers and pressing his genitals against the caregivers. The EEOC further asserted the company retaliated against the caregivers who reported the harassment by cutting their hours, firing one caregiver, and allowing work conditions so hostile that another was forced to quit.
Result: The company agreed to pay a total of $250,000 to five caregivers. Under a consent decree, the company also had to:
- Prevent future sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation.
- Hire an outside consultant to review and update its sexual harassment and anti-discrimination policies, including policies for responding to complaints of sexual harassment.
- Provide semi-annual training on Title VII and sexual harassment to all employees.
- Provide more extensive training to the owner, managers, and HR staff to also include training on how to appropriately investigate and respond to reports of sexual harassment.
- Provide training to caregivers on the care of clients with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, including how to respond to inappropriate sexual behavior that may be exhibited by individuals with those conditions.
Info: Amada Senior Care Resolves EEOC Sexual Harassment and Retaliation Case and Will Pay $250,000 to Caregivers, 5/24/21.
Key Takeaways
- Make sure your harassment policy includes a ban on harassment by third parties, such as vendors.
- Be sure to communicate the policy to third parties who have contact with your employees.
- Establish a clear system for reporting allegations of harassment and providing a prompt and thorough investigatory response.
- Take all proper remedial measures as needed.
- Train managers on the requirements of your sexual harassment policy and on how to respond to complaints of sexual harassment by third parties.
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