Sexual Harassment Policy 2014-2015

Sexual Harassment is an illegal form of discrimination that unwelcomes conduct that interferes with an individuals work performance or an intimidating, hostiles or abusive work environment. Acts of sexual harassment violates the Washington State Law Against Discrimination, RCW 49.60, stating

A state agency is herein created with powers with respect to elimination and prevention
of discrimination in employment, in credit and insurance transactions, in places of public resort, accommodation, or amusement, and in real property transactions because of race, creed, color, national origin, families with children, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, age, honorably discharged veteran or military status, or the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a person with a disability; and the commission established hereunder is hereby given general jurisdiction and power for such purposes. As well as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 stating, prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Possible examples of sexual harassment that can be found in the work place are listed as followed: * Supervisor tells an employee that in order to stay employed they must give sexual demands to their supervisor. * Employee comments on coworkers appearance and makes sexual gestures or makes requests for dates even though it is made clear that the comments are unwelcomed with no interest in dating. * Derogatory comments or jokes. * Sexual comments including graphic comments about an individuals body using sexually degrading words to describe it. * Physically touching or assaulting someone. * An employee sends emails to coworkers that contain sexually explicit language and jokes. Any form of sexual harassment is not tolerated at all. Anyone who commits an act of sexual harassment will face severe consequences or possibly fired. The U.S. Supreme Court identifies that there are two types of sexual harassment: * Quid pro Quo: unwelcome sexual conduct that can affect someones condition of employment.

* Hostile work environment: Severe/pervasive harassment that targets race/color, age, disability, or sexual orientation.

Procedure for filing a complaint against Sexual Harassment: * Report incident to an employee or an employee in the Human Resources Department. * It is important to keep an open mind when someone is telling you that they believe they have just been a victim of sexual harassment. It can be difficult for someone to admit that they have been a victim. Many employers have a hard time believing that discrimination or harassment could be happening right under their noses. Dont come to any conclusions until your investigation is complete. * Treat the employee who was a victim of the sexual harassment with respect and compassion. It is important not to shoot the messenger or retaliate. Employees often find it extremely difficult to complain about discrimination or harassment. This can have an impact on the quality of their work and it can also lead them to seek outside assistance from lawyers. * The boss or an employee from HR needs to talk to both employees who were apart of the act of sexual harassment. Talking to each person individually will help to get all of the information out on the table. It is important to see if there are any contradictions between each side of the story. * Write down any act of sexual harassment and keep it 100% confidential. Workers will likely side with either the complaining employee or the accused employee and the rumor mill will start to work overtime. Document any action taken against the accused or the reasons for deciding not to take action. * An employee from HR needs to then sit down with the victim and the presumed harasser to sit down for an informal resolution to discuss what happened in the situation. * HR will deal with the matter after a written explanation has been drawn up to decide what the final consequence will be. * HR will confirm the consequence with the boss of the company, if the employee feels that the victim has stated their case well with evidence and possibly witnesses then he presumed harasser will be fired.

Acts of Sexual Harassment will not be tolerated at all and will result in severe consequence. The act of making an employee feels uncomfortable to the point of touching, or verbally using words in a derogatory manner is never allowed and should be reported immediately. No such acts will be tolerated. If you ever have any questions about Sexual Harassment or believe you have been a victim please talk to someone in the HR department.

Thank you,