NY City Council toughens discrimination policies
Sexual harassment at workplace turns out to be a nightmare not just on ground of the harassment itself. The double jeopardy involves the manner in which punishments are awarded. The first to be penalized is usually always the employee herself. And this continues to happen partly because there are no sensitization trainings given to the corporate bosses and no assertion training for the female workers, in specific to sexual harassment.
In its pristinely developed capitalistic society today, possibly the ‘customer is king’ (a very dubious adage indeed), but what’s more true is that the ‘Boss is Always Right’.
This is a constant fear that governs the ways of marginalized employees: to keep quite or leave job or do both. The golden rule of course is NOT to quit.
Quite often, retaliation complaints are far stronger than the original, underlying complaint for discrimination.
For example, you may never be able to "prove" that Joe is sexually harassing you at work as there may be no witnesses to it and he will deny everything that you say, but if you formally complain in writing to the company about his unwelcome advances and Joe continues his predatory ways, or the company blames you for the problem, you can demonstrate that the hostility or "adverse employment actions" occured on the heels of the complaint and because of the complaint that you just filed. This is what we mean by empowerment here at Tuckner, Sipser. Assuming that your company is not inclined to see eye to eye with you regarding your allegations, and the differences between you and your employer are becoming so irreconcilable that you realize your epitaph is being chiseled by management, this 'paper trail' is often sufficient to pave the way for a negotiated severance agreement that will allow you to depart the company with dignity and your head held high.
The New York City Council last week toughened its internal sexual harassment policy to require a person who complains of being harassed to follow up with an official complaint and a council member who hears of inappropriate behavior to report it. This, a long due applicable insight paves the way for two findings: one, that now on council members need not fear repercussions solely because of their complaint, and two, that the laws are not being implemented well enough even to this day in order to work for betterment of the affected or potentially affected segments.
Speaker, Christine C. Quinn, advocating zero tolerance sexual harassment has offered a fitting response. “Obviously, the issue of sexual harassment is one that has clouded the Council at points. The reason we're doing this today isn’t because of what happened in the past. We're doing it to look forward and move forward.”
Whereas it absolves the future, more legal investigations must be carried out so that the past is not let off the hook without imparting few more lessons.
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