Consensual Relationship Agreement Case Study
Tracy Duckett
Dr. Ronnie Jones
Bus. 520 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Fall Quarter 2012
Abstract
It is not uncommon that an office romance will develop between co-workers; based on the fact that majority of their lifetime is spent at their place of employment. Employers are aware of this possibility and have workplace romance policies to protect themselves and the parties in the relationship. Consensual Relationship Agreements (CRAs) are one of the policies that protect the company and the parties involved from the outcome of the relationship ending that could result into sexual harassment claims or bad publicity. There are pros and cons to having these policies and
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This agreement not only protects the employer, it also protects the individuals in the relationship. If the relationship is ended by one of the individuals and the other disagrees and begins harassing them at work, this would be considered harassment. “At this point, the company would step in when notified and try to do something about it,” stated Lewis (2002). This protects the employer from a sexual harassment lawsuit as they protect the person being harassed.
CRA’s are definitely necessary to protect employers from office romances that end badly by asking the parties involved to agree that their relationship is voluntary and consensual as well as agree with the company’s sexual harassment policy. It helps minimize the employer’s liability if the relationship ends badly and it develops into a harassment claim. Lynn D. Lieber, an employment law attorney and founder/CEO of Workkplace Answers said, “They aren’t bulletproof, but it is more likely the judge will believe the relationship was consensual if it is in writing,” (Tyler, 2008).
Argument Against the use of CRAs in the Workplace
Two arguments that are against the use of CRAs in the workplace are legitimacy and the invasion of privacy. Because the documents have not been tested in court, it is thought they
The EEOC guidelines recommend that an employer's remedy should be "immediate and appropriate." Employers have a duty to "express strong disapproval" of sexual harassment, and to "develop appropriate sanctions." The EEOC explains that an employer's action is appropriate where it fully remedies the conduct without adversely affecting the terms or conditions of the charging party's employment in some manner (Ellison v. Brady, 1991).
In corporate America, sexual harassment is a huge concern amongst many organizations. The matter of sexual harassment is an issue that needs to be immediately attended to in
In what may be the most bewildering court ruling ever produced, “The court held that the complainant’s refusal to have sexual relations with her supervisor, and the resulting elimination of her job, was not discrimination. Rather it was due to ‘the subtleties of an inharmonious personal relationship’” (Gregg, pg. 304,
Harassment, specifically sexual harassment, is one of those challenges faced by businesses and employers as of a result of workplace diversification. Inappropriate conversations, unwanted advances and uncomfortable physical contact are some of the ways sexual harassment can occur. According to Hellriegel and Slocum, “Sexual harassment refers to unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.” (p.52). To be clear, sexual harassment can, and has, affected both women and men over the years however up to half of all working women have reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment in the career (Vijayasiri, 2008, p.1). It wasn’t until 1986 though that the Supreme Court recognized sexual harassment as a violation of Title VII in the case of Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (O’Brien, 1994, p. 1). Before the high court’s ruling, however, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had begun to address the issue by drafting hostile work environment guidelines that included sexual harassment (O’Brien, 1994, p. 4). These guidelines would serve later to guide the high court’s decision. There are many more cases like this one we could look at. In 1991, sexual harassment became a household term as Anita Hill testified before congress stating she was sexually
Contract law is relatively consistent regarding whether a contract was actually made and whether the parties involved can be legally held to the contract or not. This is primarily due to the fact that contract law proceeds from law handed down from centuries of civil and common law cases. Basically, two parties have to agree to the terms of the cited contract, after the offer is made and accepted (both parties have had time to review and make changes to the contract, although this process does not always occur), and they have either orally agreed or signed some form of written contract. It can be argued in a court afterword that there was not sufficient consideration or that one party coerced the other into an agreement, but these are usually handled at the signing of the contract. This process is time honored and, as said, has been in place for a long time. But, new types of contracts occur at times and they have a different sort of accounting by the courts. One of these types of contracts is that generally called prenuptial, antenuptial or premarital (Standler, 2009). This paper looks at prenuptial agreements and using the case of Simeone v. Simeone tries to determine some of the pros and cons of treating these agreements more like regular contracts.
Courts and employers generally use the same definition of “quid pro quo”, a form of sexual
Employers have the right and responsibility to monitor their place of business to protect themselves and their employees from invasion . The irony is that this can only be possible if an employer is able to monitor communications and exchanges . Therefore , for a company to be able to afford the protection that employees need , they must surrender in trust their privacy to the company
Work place policies regarding sexual harassment is the main issue discussed in this article. Sexual harassment has continued to be a challenge within the workplace. According to a recent review of sexual harassment related resolutions, employers have paid over $732,976.00 in sexual harassment fines (Hobson, Szostek, & Fitzgerald, 2015). The EEOC has issued written guidelines for appropriate strategies employers should use to handle workplace sexual harassment and specific ways to address it. It is the employer’s duty to proactively work to protect all employees from any type of sexual harassment by following sexual harassment policies and procedures that are put in place. Failure to implement and follow the policy and procedure in the workplace can and most likely will lead to liability should an EEOC investigation or lawsuit occur. The employer needs to disperse copies of the policies and procedures and post them in central locations throughout the organization and address sexual harassment in the employee handbooks. The policy and procedures need to clear
Sexual harassment in the workplace is a huge problem in recent history. It can happen to anyone and it can happen everywhere. It can affect all types of races, gender and age. Statistics today shows that more and more sexual harassment has become an issue due to the large number of cases presented. Mainstream media becomes consume covering sexual harassment because of the high profile cases. Sexual harassment becomes a topic on various TV shows, and on some major morning radio talk shows mostly everyday. Sexual harassment laws must be strengthened in order to fix what has become a serious problem today in the workplace.
Sexual Harassment is defined as any unwanted activity of a sexual nature that affect’s an individual’s employment. This unwanted activity can occur between members of the same sex as well as members of the opposite sex. Harassment is not only confined to employees of this organization, but to non employees also.
In our society sexual harassment has been in the workplace for years. The use of sexual harassment in the workplace has been remembered best as a weapon used to keep women in their place which would cause them to forfeit promotions within their organizations. It was once believed that women were the only victims but the shift is now changing men are also reporting that they are also victims of sexual harassment on the job. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was passed and employers began to recognize that they were liable for two types of sexual harassment. The first kind of harassment is Quid pro quo when a supervisor offers the employee sexual advances in order to get or keep a job, and also this harassment is used to determined if an
Organizations have an obligation to create a harassment free environment for its employees. Harassment doesn’t have to be of a sexual nature. An organization is liable if the harassment is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in adverse employment actions such as the victim being fired, demoted, or transferred. Harassing a person based on their sex is illegal. Sexual harassment has a great impact on an employee’s productivity as well as poses a major impact on an organization’s finances in litigation.
As seen in the case study, a court decision may be one way for any company to legally define what constitutes sexual harassment in the workplace, but there are many ways to define sexual harassment. Everyone has different views and tolerance levels towards sexual harassment. When a case of sexual harassment occurs in a workplace, however, it comes down to how the courts define sexual harassment. The Supreme Court defines sexual harassment to be unlawful in two ways. “The first type involves sexual harassment that results in a tangible employment action;” this is referred to as quid pro quo. For example, if an employee complies with the harasser’s request, then she will get a raise. This unlawful act is usually presented in the workplace by a person who has an upper hand, such as a manager, to ensure that s/he will get what s/he wants. Employees are often victimized by fear that they will not get promoted or that they will get fired. They also dread that if a complaint is filed, it will not be handled correctly. “This instance of sexual harassment always involves another violation of employee rights; [sic] wrongful termination.” This would occur, for instance, when “a supervisor . . . tells a subordinate that . . . she must be sexually cooperative with [him] or . . . she will be fired, and who then indeed does fire the subordinate for not submitting” (“U.S. Supreme Court Defines”). [schwinlaw.com]
In this research paper I would fully discuss what sexual harassment. I will start on the origin of sexual harassment and how it came into law. I will discuss what environment of sexual harassment looks like in the work place. The reader should be able to discover the different types of sexual harassment: Quid pro quo and Indirect. I will show you illustrated trends of sexual harassment in the work place over the years. I will discuss how sexual harassment affect both parties, meaning the employer and the employee. I will back up theses affects by laws that are set in place to protect the employee and hold the employer responsible. I will give an analysis on recent litigation involving sexual harassment in the workplace. In my conclusion I will give a recommendation on how to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and what management can to protect their employees.
Compared to most professional office environments, where archetypally extensive training on sexual harassment and intra-office romantic relationships are given, there is a relative lack of formal policy on many college campuses, and students and professors receive little or no briefing on this topic (Barbella, 2010). During most freshmen year orientation instruction are given on everything from how to get along with roommates to how to respond to