Even when San Diego residents truly enjoy their jobs, making it through each workday can become an extremely challenging undertaking when harassment and discrimination begin to plague the workplace.
Sexual harassment and discrimination can cause physical and mental harm, especially when employers ignore employees’ complaints about inappropriate and illegal behaviors in the workplace. Although nothing can be done to make up for this damage, workers should know that they may be entitled to obtain compensation for their pain, suffering and financial losses when employers fail to protect their rights.
According to Insurance Journal, an online publication that covers a variety of business-related news, sexual harassment continues to affect many U.S. workers. Insurance Journal also pointed out that sexual harassment lawsuits tend to result in some of the highest settlement amounts and jury awards for employees compared to other types of lawsuits filed by employees.
One of the highest sexual harassment settlements reached within the past year will be paid to employees in California. A hospital in Sacramento was accused of sexually harassing workers. The workers will receive nearly $170 million for damages. Qwest Communications in San Francisco was also recently ordered to pay $2.3 million in damages for sexual harassment.
No one should ever be sexually harassed, either verbally or physically, in any setting. Sexual harassment is degrading and physically and emotionally harmful. To protect people in the workplace, employers and workers are prohibited from sexually harassing others, which includes: inappropriate comments, unwanted sexual advances and any type of groping or touching that is inappropriate.
When employees do decide to take legal action after becoming a victim of sexual harassment in the workplace, employees may want to consider working with an attorney in order to increase their chances of receiving the maximum amount of compensation they deserve for their losses and damages. An experienced employment law attorney will know how to accurately estimate the monetary amount of an employee’s losses.
Source: Insurance Journal, “Top 25 workplace harassment, bias settlements,” Oct. 16, 2012
- Our firm handles a variety of employment law and job rights issues, including sexual harassment in the workplace. To learn more about employees’ rights, please visit our San Diego employment law attorneys page.