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Is there a Time limit to investigate and respond to a Harassment claim

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sefnfot

Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

Is there a Time limit to investigate and respond to a Harassment claim? Does a frivolous claim that is without merit need to responded to?

My organization has 1 employee and around 10 Board Members including 1 president.
the only example of harassment given by Employee is as follows:
a) Employee did not agree that her supervisor had authority and a right to reasonable access to employee records.
b) Employee expects to paid even without providing a time sheet or having the time sheet reviewed by employer.
c) Employee states that the supervisor should be inconvenienced to come to the employee instead of the employee coming to the supervisor in order to get the paycheck.
d) Employee states that it is sufficient to watch and retain her own employee records without supervision.

I notified the board members of my preliminary assessment and seek their approval :
1. Complaint appears to be frivolous.
2. The Accuser and Accused were not interviewed.
3. Complaint does not establish or claim any category as described in the www.eeoc.gov law/website.
4. A frivolous complaint wastes time so interviewing the parties is unnecessary and wasteful.
5. A frivolous complaint does not need to be answered straight away, and is beneficial to the accuser for several reasons such as:
a) A quick response would involve termination, demotion, or other reprimand.
b) Giving the employee a chance to blow off some steam for mistakenly labeling minor inconveniences as harassment.
c) Since the complaint was made by email, the employee needs to learn the rules of netiquette prior to or concurrent with any reprimand laid down.
6. Employee should be reprimanded for initiating a false accusation and inciting a DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER against the President of our Organization.

The position of the rest of the board so far is to ignore the complaint, and move forward with our original plan of restructuring the Organization business model of having no employee. I had mentioned to the board members that we cannot terminate the employee while there is an open allegation of harassment. My comments ( which was sent to the board members) is meant to close the issue. But I still have not heard any comments from the rest of the board.

*The Board President is in contact with an employment attorney and I did say that I would follow whatever they said. I will bring it up again in our next monthly meeting, but I want to make sure waiting more than 30 days isn't a problem to due diligence requirements on the issue.
 


justalayman

Senior Member
not seeing your problem. This is not harassment. It is an employee being insubordinate and disrespectful to a superior and in many companies it would be grounds to terminate them.




a) Employee did not agree that her supervisor had authority and a right to reasonable access to employee records.
it is not the employees position to make that determination

b) Employee expects to paid even without providing a time sheet or having the time sheet reviewed by employer.
employee does not make rules of operation

c) Employee states that the supervisor should be inconvenienced to come to the employee instead of the employee coming to the supervisor in order to get the paycheck.
employee does not get to determine rules of operation


d) Employee states that it is sufficient to watch and retain her own employee records without supervision.
employee does not get to determine rules of operation.


none of that is harassment. It's an employee that for some reason feels empowered where in fact they have no power or authority to make the decisions they are claiming they have a right to. Put them in their place and be done with it.


6. Employee should be reprimanded for initiating a false accusation and inciting a DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER against the President of our Organization.
what a load of hooey.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
The one comment I have is that, here in California, an employee must be properly paid for all time worked - even if they don't turn in a time sheet. Yes, it's a bit of a conundrum, but that's how it is. If the employee refuses to provide records of the time worked, then the employee should be terminated. At the same time, the employer must find an effective way to manage timekeeping.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
sefnfot, who are you in this scenario? It makes a difference what recommendations I make, whether you are the employee, the supervisor, a member of the board, or someone else.

But I agree with the above responses.
 

Indiana Filer

Senior Member
I would suggest a time clock with a company policy requiring all paid employees (even if only 1) to clock in and out.
 

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