Workplace Harassment Lawyer in Los Angeles

“Quid pro quo” is a Latin phrase that means “this for that.” It’s when someone with power or authority over another person (such as a supervisor or manager) requests or demands sexual favors in exchange for a job benefit. This type of harassment can happen in two ways:
⦁ When the person in a position of power offers a benefit in return for a sexual favor; or,
⦁ When they threaten an employee with something bad happening at work unless the employee agrees to certain sexual demands.

If an employer discriminates against you for a consensual romantic relationship you have outside of work, this could also qualify as harassment.

If you’ve been harassed at work, know it’s your employer’s responsibility to ensure it doesn’t happen. Employers have a duty to prevent harassment, fix it immediately if they know about it, and teach their employees how to recognize and avoid it.

To prove that your employer didn’t take the right steps to stop harassment, you need to show that they knew about it or should have known about it. If they didn’t do anything about it, they failed you.

If you work for a larger company with 50 or more employees, your employer must give sexual harassment training to all supervisors. If they didn’t, they might be unable to defend themselves in a sexual harassment case.

Your employer must also have a written policy about harassment, discrimination, and retaliation and give it to all employees. They should also provide information about sexual harassment, like a brochure or information sheet. In California, employers are required to post a specific anti-discrimination and harassment notice from the Department of Fair Employment and Housing in a “prominent and accessible” location in the workplace. If they don’t, they’re not doing their part to prevent harassment.

Finally, know that it’s illegal for anyone to help someone else harass you. If this happens to you, you have the right to act and protect yourself.

Employees often worry about what might happen if they pursue a harassment claim against their employer, especially if they want to keep their job. But it’s important to know that your employer can’t legally fire or mistreat you just because you spoke out against harassment. If you’ve been discriminated against, you have the right to file a complaint, testify, or help with any legal process related to the discrimination. Your employer can’t get back at you for doing these things.

If an employee is experiencing harassment at work, they have the right to recover damages not just from the harasser but also from their employer in some cases.

If the harasser is a supervisor or someone in a higher position, the employer is automatically held responsible for the harassment. However, if the harasser is just a coworker or someone in a lower position, the employer may still be held responsible if they knew or should have known about the harassment and didn’t take appropriate action to stop it.

Even if the harasser is not an employee at all, the employer may still be liable if they had some degree of control over the situation that allowed the harassment to occur.

Sometimes employees consider harassment as any type of treatment in the workplace that seems harsh or unfair. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is deemed harassment by legal definition. As experienced Los Angeles employment lawyers, Colby Law Firm attorneys want to help you understand how to prove workplace harassment.

If you feel you may be experiencing workplace harassment, document every instance as quickly as you can after it occurred, providing as much detail as possible.

The first step to reporting workplace harassment is to document what happened in detail and report it to your employer. Your next step is to consult a qualified employment law firm, such as Colby Law Firm. We offer free case reviews that can help determine if your experience qualifies as workplace harassment.