The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released “Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace” for public comment. The proposed guidance emphasizes that harassment remains a serious workplace problem, and that between the beginning of fiscal year (FY) 2018 and the end of FY 2022, thirty-five percent of the charges of employment discrimination received by the EEOC included an allegation of harassment based on race, sex, disability, or another protected characteristic. The proposed guidance notes that the “#MeToo” movement brought renewed public focus on sexual harassment at work, and racial harassment cases have remained prominent in recent years.
The guidance would consolidate several earlier EEOC guidance documents, including: Compliance Manual Section 615: Harassment; Policy Guidance on Current Issues of Sexual Harassment (1990); Policy Guidance on Employer Liability under Title VII for Sexual Favoritism (1990); Enforcement Guidance on Harris v. Forklift Sys., Inc. (1994); and Enforcement Guidance on Vicarious Employer Liability for Unlawful Harassment by Supervisors (1999).
Click here for the full text of the proposed guidance.
