Workplace Harassment Regulations and Why They Are Important

These rules protect people against acts that would make a rational person terrified to go to work. They make exploitation and abusive work environments illegal.

Both federal law and the Department of Labor have developed workplace harassment rules. They safeguard workers against discrimination and obstructive workplace conduct, allowing them to avoid working in a hostile work environment. These laws were enacted via a variety of statutes and subsections of acts, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and others.

Contrary to common belief, these statutes and related case law are not meant to ensure that everyone plays by the rules. Instead, they ban individual exploitation and the establishment of a hostile and abusive environment. Casual joking and offhand statements do not constitute harassment. But, targeted and pervasive conduct that makes a reasonable person fearful of going to work is prohibited. These rules safeguard such persons, allowing them to avoid being punished in the business context regardless of whether they choose to stay with the firm or not. Before, harassed workers who left a difficult work condition could not claim unemployment benefits since it was characterized as a willful termination. Occupational harassment rules and safeguards enable workers to quit a hostile work environment and still claim benefits, as long as they can establish that the work environment was, in fact, hostile.

These regulations also impose additional responsibilities on employers. Employers are often held accountable for hostile work conditions, even if they were not directly engaged in the harassment or the activity that led to it. Occupational harassment rules restrict employers from turning a blind eye to inappropriate behavior in the workplace. It also inspires students to find their own solutions to avoid these problems in the first place. To avoid being held accountable after an instance of workplace harassment has been established, the employer must demonstrate that he or she either did all that could be done or that it was not reasonable to do anything further. Yet, in most circumstances, this criteria is difficult to satisfy.