Harassment in the workplace may not always be noticeable, but it intimidates, degrades, humilates and offends.
Workplace harassment doesn't really have a "legal" definition. Harassment comes in many different forms including telephone, sexual, religious and racial. In the workplace, any of these could occur, and within Ohio law, each has an individual legal definition and consequences depending on the severity of the incident. According to the Ohio Revised Code, places of employment should create their own policies concerning harassment.
Definition
Ohio Revised Code defines harassment as "any intentional written, verbal, or physical act ... toward another." To fall under this definition, the act must cause physical or mental harm to the victim. Also, it must be severe, persistent or bad enough to make the environment threatening or uncomfortable. In their workplace policy, James Cook University defines workplace harassment as, "offensive treatment through vindictive cruel, malicious or humiliating attempts to undermine an individual employee or groups." It further describes the acts as "unpredictable, irrational and often unseen."
Examples
Bullying, unwanted sexual advances or comments, religious teasing and racial jokes can all be forms of harassment. Parties involved in harassment may be employee to employee, or corporate to employees, or even client/student to employee. To further explain, James Cook University defines corporate harassment as employees being coerced into agreeing to terms they may not like because they have been threatened with termination or job difficulty. Client to employee harassment means, for example, a teacher is being threatened by a student or a parent is threatening an administrator or company over something that made them feel discouraged.
Consequences
Harassment has negative consequences on the victim and the offender. Victims may develop anxiety, low self-esteem, physical health problems, mental distress or depression. In some cases of bullying, the result is suicide. The offender could end up being terminated from the job or behind bars.
Legal Aspect
Looking at sexual harassment, Ohio Revised Code states, "Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when: Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly ...; submission to or rejection of such conduct ... is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual; or such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance." If found to be an actual case of harassment after an investigation, punishment may include community control, prison time, counseling or a combination. Facts making any harassment case more severe include physical harm to a victim, actual threat with a weapon, if this is an offender's second offense, or if the offender held a position of public office.
Workplace Policy
Ohio Revised Code states that places of employment must establish a policy on workplace harassment. The policy needs to contain the definition as stated in the Ohio Revised Code. It must also include a procedure and the requirements for reporting harassment, a procedure to document harassment, a procedure to respond and investigate harassment, a strategy to protect the victim and any disciplinary action for the offender.
Tags: Ohio Revised, Ohio Revised Code, Revised Code, such conduct, Code states, Cook University