As New York Knick coach Isiah Thomas learned recently, sexual harassment can prove costly – to one’s dignity and pocketbook/ Despite Thomas’ claims of innocence, a federal jury found him guilty of sexually harassing former Knick employee Anucha Browne Sanders and ordered his employer, Madison Square Garden, to pay her $11.6 in punitive damages.
The case, which has reignited debate about sexual harassment in the workplace, comes at a time when cases are in sharp decline in U.S. offices. Unwanted sexual advances persist, no doubt, but fillings with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have decreased to just over 12,000 in 2006, down from 16,000 cases in 2000, according to a recent report by the Chicago Tribune.
The falling numbers reflect an increased awareness by employees and employers of what constitutes harassment – sexual harassment comes in hundreds of verbal, physical, or pictorial forms – and increasing employer efforts to make working conditions hospitable.
The clothing retailer American Apparel, for example, was slapped with several sexual harassment lawsuits in 2005 after the company had enjoyed several years of eye-opening growth and profits.
The lawsuits, among other accusations, claim American Apparel C.E.O. Dov Charney conducted job interviews in his underwear. Charney has steadfastly denied the charges.The media have ''exploited American Apparel on certain issues,'' Charney told the New York Times. ''I would never do an interview in my underwear.''
As of February 2008 only one of the three suits had gone to trial.
But Charney has taken steps to alert employees to the company’s extravagant work setting, something not uncommon in the world of retail and fashion. According to the New York Times, American Apparel employees must sign a document that declares: ''American Apparel is in the business of designing and manufacturing sexually charged T-shirts and intimate apparel, and uses sexually charged visual and oral communications in its marketing and sales activity.''
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made sexual harassment illegal, although the law was not vigorously enforced until the 1970s, when increasing numbers of women entered the workforce.
The largest U.S. sexual harassment lawsuit – $1 billion – was filed in Manhattan in 2006 against the American branch of Germany’s Dresdner Bank. The suit claims lewd behavior against women and reduced opportunities for women who returned to the company after maternity leave, among other charges, according to the trade publication Office Solutions.
