Harassment Accusation

[Discrimination]

What is the name of your state? Ca.

I am a supervisor and have been told that a harassment complaint has been filed against me,by one of the employees I oversee, and that there will be an investigation. Without getting into specifics, do I have any rights, such as being able to view the complaint or having counsel, or union representation? Additionally to I have to continue working with this person? I feel like I am unfairly being accused of something that I did not do, and that continuing to work with them puts me at risk, for more complaints, and makes me rather uncomfortable.
Thank you for any assistance.

 

[Beth3]

The answers to your questions are no, no, and I don't know. (Are you a union member? If so, you need to review your CBA and/or your employer's SH policy.)

Being accused of SH is of course very worrisome, particularly if your believe you have been falsely occused. For all we know, your employer may be thinking the complaint is ridiciulous. However, they're not going to SAY that. They are obligated to take the complaint seriously and conduct an impartial investigation. It's entirely possible that your employer may conclude the complaint is unfounded and you will be cleared. The fact that they haven't suspended you pending the outcome of the investigation at least suggests the complaint is not serious and/or that they are suspect it is unfounded.

I do suggest you speak to your manager and the HR group about this individual working in your area. It does indeed have the potential for her to alledge further harassment. Here's the rub though - the company may not appear to retalliate against her in any way for bringing a good faith complaint of SH. In other words, it is extremely unlikely that their transferring her to another area is a good idea. Option B therefore is to transfer you, which has it's advantages (you aren't working with her) and disadvantages (it will look to your subordinates and co-workers that you did something wrong and that's why you're the one being transferred - they won't understand the issues involved.)

I do suggest you have a dialog with your manager and HR about this though and see what options are possible, or at least what strategies might be employed to lessen the likelihood she will have any basis to make further allegations.

In the meantime, your best course of action is to cooperate fully with the investigation and steer clear of this employee as best you can. At the very least, I suggest you not speak to her about anything other than work matters and not to do that without the presence of another employee (ideally, an ass't supervisor or lead person) who can attest to the exact interaction that took place if that becomes necessary.

 

[Discrimination]

Thanks for such a promt reply,I wanted to add
more specifics, and some additional questions. It's not an SH, it's a personality conflict between members of my team. There are other positions available to team members, but none to myself.
The complaintants work has been marginal,with many memos and discussions addressing these issues. So
let's see if I understand this, if the complaint is found to be without merit, this employee will have more protections, than previously afforded.

 

[Beth3]

When you said you were a supervisor and a harassment complaint had been filed against you by a subordinate, I assumed you meant sexual harassment.

If the complaint has nothing to do with prohibited discrimination/harassment, then your employer can handle it any way they see fit and basically nothing I've written above is pertinent. If the complaint is just the latest in a long line of "pain in the ass" behavior from the employee and/or is an attempt to obfuscate the real issue which is her continuing poor job performance, they can proceed as they wish - whether to transfer her, discipline her, or even terminate her, assuming no CBA or other company policy stands in the way.

What I was talking about above was in reference to complaints of sexual harassment or other forms of prohibited discrimination. The laws which prohibit that also prohibit the employer from retalliating against an employee bringing a good faith complaint, as it should. The difficulty that arises is when an employee knowingly brings a false allegation against their boss for whatever reason (usually because they're ticked off at their supervisor for disciplining him/her.) It's almost impossible to prove the complaint was false and the employee knows they've really put the employer in a bind and if there is any further discipline, they will often alledge it's retalliatory.

 

[Discrimination]

HI Beth

Mostly I wanted to thank you for myself, and all the other people you help.

To update the whole thing was settled by the 3 of us meeting with a facilitator. I feel like the filer has some issues and can only hope he works thru them at some point in time. As you can imagine things are still on the tense side, but at least we are working as opposed to memo writing.

I did have another question for you. If there is a successful discrimination complaint, is the the supervisor personally libel.

 

[Beth3]

You welcome. Glad things appear to be have been successfully resolved.

To answer your question, yes, a supervisor may be sued for prohibited discrimination and can be held personnally liable. The way this is typically done is that if an employee brings suit, the individual is specifically named along with the employer in the suit.