Workplace Harassment Law

An expansion of Bloomberg BNA's Sexual Harassment in Employment Law---providing the most complete coverage of harassment issues in the workplace

Workplace harassment has become one of the most litigious areas of employment law, with thousands of cases being brought against employers, resulting in millions of dollars in litigation costs and awards. Bloomberg BNA first addressed this explosive subject in its seminal treatise Sexual Harassment in Employment Law. Given the expansion of the theories of liability for harassment, however, and the evolution of employer and employee rights and obligations, litigators and employers need an updated reference that addresses the entire spectrum of workplace harassment issues.

The new Workplace Harassment Law provides the comprehensive coverage that attorneys need when bringing or defending a suit, offering guidance from seasoned practitioners. The treatise examines the nuts and bolts of workplace harassment law, from requirements for bringing a suit to establishment of harassment, actionable forms of harassment, and determination of employer liability.

The treatise also discusses many different types of suits, including for harassment based on gender, race or color, national origin, religion, age, disability, association, and proximity. It starts with a history of workplace harassment, analyzing legislation that has come to define workplace harassment law, including opinions of the federal appellate courts interpreting Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other anti-discrimination laws.

Looking at the requirements for bringing a case, Workplace Harassment Law explores timeliness and timely exhaustion of administrative remedies; the parties involved in a claim; and establishment of the causal connection, one of the most important requirements of a harassment claim. The treatise discusses the causal connection with respect to each of the protected classes, and provides analysis of laws regarding retaliation and other adverse employment actions for opposing workplace harassment on the basis of these protected classes.

The treatise provides a thorough examination of actionable forms of harassment, discussing:

• Tangible employment actions alleged to result from harassment;
• Hostile work environments caused by conduct (a) so severe or pervasive that it creates an environment that any reasonable person would find hostile or (b) that the plaintiff perceives as creating a hostile work environment; and
• Criteria used to determine whether the harassment creates a work environment so intolerable that any reasonable person would quit.

Finally, the treatise moves to the topic of employer liability, analyzing:

• Quid pro quo cases, in which an employer is automatically liable for harassment by a supervisor;
• Employer liability for harassment culminating in a tangible employment action;
• Vicarious liability for hostile work environments wherein the harasser wields supervisory authority over the plaintiff, and the ways to reduce or avoid liability in such cases; and
• Employer negligence---the most commonly invoked theory of employer liability.

Count on this newly expanded resource to provide expert analysis of the latest issues surrounding workplace harassment and sound advice on both avoiding and litigating harassment claims, litigating harassment claims.