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| *Ostroff, Fair and Company>>>Other - Careers & Employment |
Suspected of having sex with a business partner? |
I have a coworker who is suspected of having sex with a business partner. Both arrived to an appointment late with messy hair and sweaty. It was reported to a manager. No proof but has a history with many witnesses at one time at a company event for getting too friendly with another coworker. Whether it is true or not, can the employer fire my coworker for that and can my company report this to the company the business partner works for? Is this a fireable offense even though there is no proof? What you are describing is a federal offense and is covered by the EEOC. This situation could be construed to be a form of sexual harassment against the employees who are not having the affair. The implication is that if any of the other employees had consented to an affair, then they too could receive special treatment at work. The EEOC sets forth the following standards - take note of number three: **************** Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances, including but not limited to the following: 1. The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex. 2. The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee. 3. The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct. 4. Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim. 5. The harasser's conduct must be unwelcome. *************************** Unfortunately, there are a couple of problems in dealing with this at your workplace. First of all, there has to be very strong evidence that the affair is taking place. Secondly, this is a business partner, so it's really hard to fire him, unless the other business partners are willing to take action. This can also be reported to the company's ethics department and they are required to investigate. It would be very foolish of the company to fire the employee who is having the affair with the partner, as she could file a sexual harassment claim stating that she was forced to have the affair to keep her job. If the company refuses to take action against the business partner involved in the affair, then your last option would be to report this to the labor board. Unfortunately, they have quite a backload of work and it could be months or years for them to investigate. If none of the above works, then the last shot the employees have to put an end to the situation is to request a meeting with all of the employees and the managers and bring it all out in the open. That requires multiple employees willing to speak out at the meeting. If only one or two speak out then it will look like they are just trouble makers. If you have the meeting, make sure you do your homework regarding sexual harassment so that you know the standards inside and out and make sure the management knows that the affair is a violation of the law. ******************************... To answer your questions: Very strong evidence means that multiple witnesses will have to speak up as to the inappropriate behaviour. If the management does't want to believe the affair is occuring, then nothing short of eyewitnesses to the sex act or a video tape is going to do it. I misunderstood and thought that the coworker is a member of the same company that the business partner works for. If that is not the case, then the sexual harassment lines get a bit dimmer. If management wanted to fire the coworker because of the inappropriate behaviour, they would be better off firing her for some other reason, such as attendance or tardiness. Its hard to say, but it all depands on the the employer and also the work place policies, they can do whatever they want if they have strong reason to believe the claim As long as it doesn't affect job performance -- i.e. there's not ethical compromise business wise -- then it's really none of your employers concern and, in my opinion, none of yours either. normally having sex between two consenting adults is not a reason to get fire unless they are doing in on company time in a company facility. if that is all you have to worry about i would look to greener pastures. |
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