Employers enjoy a wide range of freedom of speech; but they
need to watch out for the following. Consider Teresa Harris’s case (Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc.), which went
to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her boss called her a “dumbass woman.” He also told
crude jokes. The high court reinstated a case that had been dismissed, and
basically told the lower court to reconsider whether expressions such as “dumbass
woman” create a hostile work environment. Different context, but in another
case a company president repeatedly referred to his employee, Mansour, as
Manny. Mansour asked him politely to use his correct time-- more than once. After a while, Mansour
sued claiming national origin discrimination. He won a $90,000 judgment due a
work environment that was hostile to Egyptians. The boss denied any hostile
intent. The court said intent didn’t necessarily matter: a reasonable Arab would find this insulting and interfering with work. Lesson: Calling an
employee an “asshole” won’t create liability; but the boss has to be careful
not to append discriminatory names and stereotypes to this common insult.
No comments:
Post a Comment