Many Localities Enforce Laws Protecting Individuals from Sexual Harassment and Discrimination
The enforcement of human rights laws can get a little confusing if you are not sure what you are doing. While there are many important human rights laws at both the federal level and state level. In order to take advantage of the tools in place that protect a worker’s civil rights in the workplace, it is helpful if workers understand the basic process for filing a sexual harassment claim.
It Starts With Your Supervisor
In New York State, every employer is required to have sexual harassment policies on their books and those policies are required to be made readily available to employees. An employee who experiences sexual harassment should start a conversation with their supervisor about the company’s process for filing a complaint. In New York State, it is illegal for a company to fire an employee because that employee filed a sexual harassment complaint. In fact, retaliation of any kind for filing a complaint is illegal.
Filing The Complaint
Once your company is made aware that you want to file a sexual harassment complaint, the company is required to assist you in getting the complaint filed out. It is recommended that you put down your side of the story in writing and collect any witness statements that can be submitted with your filing. Actually, you should, in severe cases, have already consulted with an attorney who is concerned with your integrity, as opposed to the company or its insurance policy.
The Company Process
Your company is required to immediately and thoroughly investigate your complaint of sexual harassment once it has been officially filed with the human resources department. While the law does not state what the outcome of an investigation should be, it is hoped that a company that finds that sexual harassment occurred would take swift action.
Getting An Attorney Involved
While most companies might suggest that you do not need to involve a sexual harassment attorney in the process, it is always a victim’s legal right to seek out legal counsel. This can become especially helpful if you feel that the investigation either was incomplete, or you did experience some sort of retaliation due to your complaint.
Our firm has many years of experience in helping victims to file sexual harassment complaints with their companies, or with the local authorities. We can let you know which authority would get involved in your case, and we can help to make sure that your side of the story is heard.