The Rights of a Person Who Witnessed Sexual Harassment At Work
The Law Office of Jim Zadeh has represented victims of sexual harassment for over 15 years. One issue that we have been confronted with is what if you are not the victim of sexual harassment but have witnessed sexual harassment? Witnesses of sexual harassment can feel the effects just as much as victims. Sexual harassment causes a toxic work environment, even if you keep your head down and do not report what you have seen. As a witness you will face many problems, such as, how do you describe what happened, how do you know when and who to tell; should you confront the harasser, and the biggest workplace fear can be, will you face retaliation for reporting what you have witnessed. If you decide to report what has happened to your superiors/supervisors, make sure you know the company’s procedure and policy. By reporting the sexual harassment, you have made the first important step in correcting the problem. There are laws in place to prevent the company from retaliation. Companies are not allowed to demote you, change your workload, put you in a less desirable location or lessen your job classification because you have made the decision to speak up. If you report what your company has defined as sexual harassment, and you feel what you have witnessed causes a toxic work environment, then you may feel that the company has retaliated against you for doing so. If so, we advise you to contact counsel as soon as possible to protect your rights.
