Sexual Harassment Grievances Are Never Easy

Collecting and Documenting Evidence is Essential

The key to good representation is always to collect and document the evidence. In sexual harassment cases, documentation is even more important.

Let's say Trisha goes to her supervisor and tells him that Greg is touching her inappropriately when they pass closely, which they often have to do in their tight workspace. Trisha says that lots of other women have had the same experience. She offers to bring them forward, but the supervisor says he's too busy to bother with that; he'll just talk to Greg. Then he tells Greg in front of several witnesses that if he hears one more time about Greg's roaming hands, Greg is gone.

Naturally, word gets around the shop floor pretty quickly. Greg puts up with a lot of teasing from his buddies, and there is a lot of speculation about who made the complaint to the supervisor. But a week later, there's a new topic for gossip, and Greg is forgotten.

Then Trisha goes to her supervisor with another complaint. She says Greg stopped touching her, but just before the lunch break he positioned himself where no one but she could see him and exposed himself to her.

The supervisor goes directly to Greg and tells him to clock out, that he is fired. When Greg asks why, the supervisor says the company has a zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy, which gives him the authority to fire Greg.

Now Greg is furious. He demands to know who has accused him. When the supervisor says that is confidential, Greg storms out of the shop, but not before telling his friends what he thinks of the supervisor and the b___ who is telling lies about him.

After work, you find him and six of his friends in the parking lot. They demand that you get him his job back and get his accuser fired. They say there is no way he would harass anyone. Two of his friends are female. One of them tells you she knows who accused him and it's all a bunch of lies.

How do you handle this one?

Clearly, you're in for a lot of work, and you haven't even run into Trisha or her friends yet. You know that when you do they're going to be angry with you for taking up his case.

You start by looking at the company's sexual harassment policy and what your contract says about discharging workers for misconduct.

The supervisor's actions may have been hasty. He should have interviewed those women that Trisha talked about. He may have violated the contract or even the company's sexual harassment policy.

You'll need to take a statement from Greg, and you should ask his friends whether they would be willing to testify regarding his good character. Have them write their statements down and sign them. An unsigned statement is not worth much.

Of course, when Trisha hears that you're trying to get Greg's job back, she'll probably have a few things to say to you. But your job is to protect Greg's rights as well as hers.

And you'll be sure to interview those other women that the supervisor was too busy to bother with, along with the witnesses that heard the boss warn Greg to keep his hands to himself.

Now let's look at this same scenario, except that the supervisor doesn't fire Greg. Instead, he tells Trisha he thinks she's lying and maybe she made the whole thing up. She comes to you demanding that you make the company fire Greg or move him to another location.

What would you do differently?

Not much, really, because you still need to understand the company's policy, and you still need to take statements from anyone with information that will help you find the truth.

No matter what the grievance is about, the evidence guides your actions.