New Jersey employment lawyers representing employees and employers will need to take a look at the Third Circuit's recent ruling in Huston v. Proctor & Gamble Products Corporation.
The court recently ruled that in a case where the hostile work environment is created by a victim's non-supervisory co-workers, an employer is not automatically liable for hostile environment sexual harassment under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The court stated that employer liability for co-worker harassment exists only if the employer failed to provide a reasonable avenue for complaint. Alternatively, liability can be established if the employer knew or should have known of the harassment and failed to take prompt and appropriate remedial action. Employers have constructive notice of co-worker harassment under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 if the harassment is pervasive and open that a reasonable employer would have had to be aware of it.
The court further stated that there are two circumstances in which an employee's knowledge of allegations of coworker sexual harassment may be imputed to the employer. The first circumstance is where the employee is sufficiently senior in the employer's governing hierarchy, or otherwise in a position of administrative responsibility over employees under him, such as a departmental or plant manager, so that such knowledge is important to the employee's general managerial duties, and second, where the employee is specifically employed to deal with sexual harassment.
The Third Circuit ruled that supervising technicians are not "management level" employees under the Civil Rights Act. The court further ruled that their knowledge of allegations of co-worker sexual harassment cannot be imputed to the employer. The court noted that the employer's managers were salaried and had authority to hire and discipline whereas the supervising technicians were hourly employees. Moreover, the supervising technicians and did not have authority to hire or discipline.
