be able to discharge their responsibility to prevent and correct harassment through less formal means. As long as the business conducts a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation of any complaints and undertakes swift and appropriate corrective action, it will have fulfilled its responsibility to “effectively prevent and correct harassment.”
The EEOC has recommended practical guidelines regarding the duty of employers to prevent and correct harassment and the duty of employees to avoid harassment by using their employers’ complaint procedures. Following these guidelines do not relieve any employer of responsibility for the harassment of an employee by a supervisor.
The following provides an overview of the guidelines for both employers and employees:
* Employers should encourage employees to report harassment to management before it becomes severe or pervasive. The employer should assure employees that it will protect the confidentiality of harassment complaints to the extent it is possible.
* If an employer determines that harassment occurred, it should take immediate measures to stop the harassment and ensure that it does not recur. Disciplinary measures should be proportional to the severity of the offense. The employer also should correct the effects of the harassment by, for example, restoring leave taken because of the harassment and expunging negative evaluations in the employee’s personnel file that arose from the harassment.
* An employer has a responsibility to correct clearly unwelcome harassment regardless of whether or not a complaint is filed. For example, if there is graffiti in the workplace containing racial or sexual epithets,