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Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits sexual harassment which is a form of sexual discrimination. It is prohibited by law to harass an applicant or an employee based on their gender. Harassment can include a wide variety of actions such as unwelcome sexual advances, asking for a sexual favor, and many other verbal, non-verbal or physical actions that are of a sexual nature. However, even offensive remarks that are made about a person’s gender or sexuality can be considered sexual harassment. It is prohibited to make offensive remarks about women in general or men in general. Victims may be either male or female and victims do not have to be of the opposite sex. As a general rule, the law does not deal with incidents where there is simple teasing, silly comments or isolated incidents that do not escalate. However, when harassment becomes severe and creates a hostile work environment or an offensive work environment then the law is there to protect workers. A harasser can be a co-worker, an employer, supervisor, or even a person who is not employed by the company like a customer.
There are many different employment laws which have been developed over the years in order to provide safety in the workplace for employees. Employers should observe these laws and make available to their employees policies and procedures to follow in the event an employee feels one or more of them have been violated in some way. The workplace should be a safe place for employees and there can be serious repercussions for the employer if employment laws are not followed closely. Here are just a few of the main laws employees should be aware of.