TALK TO OUR SEXUAL HARASSMENT LAWYER IN LOS ANGELES TODAY
Most employers understand the importance of treating people with dignity and respect in the workplace. They establish rules to prevent harassment and abuse of every kind and carry out training to reinforce these structures. If you have been sexually harassed in your place of work, you must act legally against your employer. This is best done with the help of our employment attorney in Los Angeles.
Understanding Sexual Harassment
The first thing to get straight is that sexual harassment is not about sex; it is about power. Typically, harassers make unwanted advances toward you out of affection or a desire for intimacy; they also do so out of a desire to control.
Sexual harassment consists of all conduct that is sexual in nature and that makes employees uncomfortable. This can include making sexually explicit jokes and hanging pictures or putting up screensavers that are sexually suggestive. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act is the main federal law that prohibits sexual harassment. State law also protects you from such treatment.
How to Prevent Sexual Harassment
It is not your sole responsibility to prevent sexual harassment. You should not be forced to wear certain clothes, stay away from certain people, or change your way of walking and talking to remain safe. You should have the freedom to work as everyone else in the office works without the threat of unwanted advances and not have to avert your eyes to avoid offensive images. Walking into an unwelcoming workplace in anticipation of lewd and suggestive comments is unacceptable. We can help you with that.
It is the responsibility of the leadership and management team to prevent sexual harassment. They should adopt a clear sexual harassment policy that must:
- Define sexual harassment
- State intolerance for sexual harassment
- Spell out the consequences for those who violate this policy
- Establish clear procedures for filing a sexual harassment complaint
- Pledge that the company will thoroughly investigate all such complaints
- State that the company will not tolerate retaliation against complainants
Your company should also carry out training. Most people have very confused ideas about what constitutes inappropriate behavior in the workplace. Your company should put each new employee through a rigorous training course, and it should conduct refresher training courses for all staff at least once a year.
Managers and supervisors are on the frontlines of sexual harassment prevention and response. They should receive training that is separate from the employee sessions. The training sessions should instruct them on how to deal with complaints and how to enforce the policy.
Why is Reporting Sexual Harassment So Difficult?
If you have been made to feel uncomfortable in the workplace and believe a quick word with the offender will resolve the situation, you should proceed.
It is best to handle interpersonal conflict at the lowest possible level. However, you should not feel obliged to do so – especially if you’re not comfortable facing an entire group of co-workers who engage in this sort of behavior.
This will be one of the hardest things you will ever do. You may think to yourself that you did not join the company to start trouble. Instead, to showcase knowledge, skill, and expertise. You just want to get on with your job and let others get on with theirs.
The problem is that you will not be able to function as you should in a hostile work environment. No one is safe in a workplace in which sexual harassment is allowed to thrive. If you are to be left alone to do your work, you must report sexual harassment.
When the Company Fails You
It is reasonable to expect that the company will take your complaint seriously and investigate it. If your complaint gets ignored or you are pressured into dropping it, you must seek help elsewhere if this does not happen.
When the company fails you, you can turn to our law offices for help. A sexual harassment lawyer in Los Angeles will sit down with you and listen to your story. They will ask you to recall details about the incidents that you have had to deal with and how the company responded to them.
The job of a workplace sexual harassment lawyer is to get you justice. What that looks like will be determined largely by you. Sexual harassment lawyers in LA will help you determine specific demands, including compensation for emotional pain and suffering, reinstatement if you were wrongfully terminated, and a change in sexual harassment policy and enforcement mechanisms. From the moment you retain our services we will handle all communication and aspects of the investigation.
In most instances, the matter can be settled without going to trial. No company wants the inevitably bad publicity that comes with a sexual harassment trial. This fact will put your Los Angeles work harassment compensation attorney in a position to demand a settlement that is commensurate with all that you have endured.