What is my liability if someone complains of Sexual Harassment?
The liability of the company will depend on the extent of the harassment which occurred, the level of the person accused of doing the harassing, and the preventive measures which the company had in place to prevent any harassment. If the harassment was so prevalent that the supervisor or other member of management should reasonably have known about the behavior, more than likely, the company will be held liable. This is also true for cases where someone complains to a supervisor and is met with casual disregard, such as, Oh you know men, thats just the way they are! If the person accused of harassing is highly placed in the organization, the company may be liable if it is determined that the person has the authority to act as the company. This means that if a C.O.O. is found guilty of harassing an employee, that employee may directly sue the company since the person has a great deal of authority. If there are no tangible employment actions and the company is not held liable for either
