Protect Against Sexual Harassment
Industry leaders and safety experts agree that incidents of employee sexual harassment have increased the pressure on hoteliers across the entire lodging industry to do more to protect their employees from harm –and to minimize the liability for their businesses.
The law is clear that all employers must work to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace among their own employees. However, when an employee is sexually harassed (or assaulted) by a third-party (i.e., a customer or guest), the law is far more interested in what measures the employer had in place to try to prevent the incident and what steps were taken to remedy the employee’s allegations. The hospitality industry is especially at risk to the legal consequences in this area, given the large number of employees in certain vulnerable occupations, such as housekeepers, that might be prone to third-party harassment.
A number of recent federal and state court decisions on this issue indicate that the sexual harassment laws are trending toward holding employers liable for sexual harassment by third-parties. Further, a number of state legislatures are proposing to pass specific laws with respect to reinforcing employer liability as well. This means that an employee claim of sexual harassment or assault by one of your guests could result in a civil lawsuit, unfavorable publicity, and low employee morale –all of which could negatively impact your hotels in an already difficult economy.
Accordingly, the best defense to a problem such as this is a good offense, which includes protecting all of your employees. In an effort to inform our members of ways to better protect themselves, we have provided the following documents prepared by industry experts that could help you establish effective sexual harassment policies for your hotels.
Harassment Guidelines (Adobe PDF File)
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