Sexually Hostile Workplace

The Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division (”TWCCRD”) enforces the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act; which has been codified into Texas Labor Code, Chapter 21.  The Texas Labor Code prohibits employment discrimination, including sex discrimination and sexual harassment.  For its own part, the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (”EEOC”) enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, including sex discrimination and sexual harassment.  Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that violates Chapter 21 of the Texas Labor Code and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In an August 21, 2009 EEOC Press Release, the federal agency announced a major settlement of a discrimination lawsuit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against a major home improvement company for $1.72 million and significant remedial relief on behalf of three employees in their twenties who were subjected to a pervasive sexually hostile work environment and retaliated against for complaining about it.  See, http://www.eeoc.gov/press/8-21-09.html .  According to the EEOC Press Release, the sexually hostile workplace, which endured for more than six months, included physical and verbal abuse which culminated in one instance of sexual assault.  In this regard, attorneys alleged in the lawsuit that a female employee was sexually assaulted by a 44-year-old male store manager.  As stated in the Press Release, the EEOC asserted that the company not only failed to take prompt remedial action to stop the sexual harassment, but also fired the three victims in the case.  An EEOC attorney quoted in the Press Release said “No worker, regardless of gender or other discriminatory factors, should ever have to endure harassment in order to earn a paycheck.” 

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates and intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.  See, TWCCRD “Employment Discrimination Fact Sheets” at http://www.twc.state.tx.us/crd/facts.html . 

Whether a sexually hostile workplace arises in Houston, Huntsville, Pearland or elsewhere, victims of sexual harassment may contact the EEOC and, in Texas, the TWCCRD, as well as an attorney to determine if a hostile work environment lawsuit is ultimately appropriate under the particular facts and circumstances of the potential sexual harassment claim.