Oakland Employment Law Blog

Female workers in California and elsewhere are reporting fewer instances of unwanted sexual attention or sexual coercion. This is according to a study conducted by the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado. The study involved 500 women who were polled about their experiences with sexual harassment and coercion in September 2016 and in September 2018. The results suggest that sexual harassment is happening less frequently in the workplace.

However, there was an increase in the amount of gender harassment reported between 2016 and 2018. For example, men have increasingly said that they don't want to be alone with women or mentor them because they don't want to be falsely accused of sexual harassment. This is in spite of the fact that false accusations of harassment are rare. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, there was a 14% increase in sexual harassment complaints in 2018 compared to 2017.

Even if employees in California and other states don't bring allegations of workplace discrimination directly to state agencies or the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), they may still be able to move forward with their claim. This is what the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision in June, 2019. The verdict applies to federal courts and discrimination claims filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

The decision essentially means courts cannot automatically dismiss an employment discrimination case simply because a worker didn't first file a claim with the EEOC or an equivalent agency. However, employers are still able to bring up instances of a plaintiff's failure to first file a claim with the EEOC within a timely manner to seek dismissal of a claim. But this defense may not be permissible if an employer fails to bring it up within a reasonable period of time.

California residents who are old enough to suffer from age discrimination in the workplace should be aware of POWADA, the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act. This is a proposed law designed to make proving age discrimination in court much easier. One study by the Urban Institute found that 56% of older workers are forced out of their jobs before they can retire. Only one in 10 of those workers will make as much money at their new place of employment.

The U.S. Supreme Court sided with employers in 2009 by making it much more difficult for victims of discrimination to prove they were wrongfully demoted or terminated. Aged workers are still able to sue their employers for workplace discrimination; however, the Supreme Court's decision requires that plaintiffs prove that age was the sole factor in their termination or demotion. An employer could simply argue that the plaintiff would have been fired even if they were younger. The burden of proof currently lies solely on the plaintiff and creates a serious hardship since proving age as a sole factor is no easy feat.

Many employees in California and across the country continue to face serious problems with sexual harassment on the job. Unwanted sexual advances and other types of inappropriate behavior continue to rise, despite the emergence of the #MeToo movement and widespread media attention on the problem. Indeed, since allegations of sexual harassment and abuse against high-profile Hollywood executives hit major news, the number of federal complaints about sexual harassment on the job has escalated significantly.

In the 2018 fiscal year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received 7,609 complaints about sexual harassment in the workplace, an increase of 13.6% over the prior year. At the same time, general reports of workplace discrimination and harassment of all types declined. This means that sexual harassment complaints formed a greater proportion of all federal filings. During the year, workers filed 76,418 complaints of workplace harassment for various protected reasons, making a nearly 10% drop. Surveys also show that more instances of sexual harassment and assault are being reported through internal company procedures as well. Still, EEOC officials said that only around one-fifth of all workers who experience sexual harassment on the job actually file a report. In most cases, people must file an EEOC claim before proceeding to a federal lawsuit for workplace discrimination.