1998 Supreme Court Decisions on Employer's Liability
As a result of those decisions, under federal law, an employer is legally responsible to a victimized employee for sexual harassment by a supervisor with authority over that employee in two instances.
When the harassment leads to a tangible employment action, such as demotion, decreased compensation, significantly different work assignments, or termination, the employer's liability is absolute.
When there has been no tangible employment action, the employer is liable unless it can prove that:
- it has taken reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior (such as widely disseminating an effective policy and complaint procedure) and
- the employee "unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer or to avoid harm otherwise."