Preventing Workplace Harassment, Discrimination, and Retaliation

employees for engaging in legitimate union activities or insisting upon the protections of these statutes, and treat such interference as an unfair labor practice.

P REVENTING H ARASSMENT , D ISCRIMINATION , AND R ETALIATION

Section 8

It is unlawful for a public entity employer to fail to take all reasonable steps necessary to prevent discrimination and harassment from occurring in the workplace. 173 An employer must protect its employees, unpaid interns, volunteers, and anyone providing services pursuant to a contract regardless of immigration status. 174

FEHA does not protect volunteers and most unpaid interns from unlawful discrimination, but only unlawful harassment. Nonetheless, agencies should refrain from taking adverse actions against volunteers and unpaid interns because of their membership in a protected classification.

LCW Practice Advisor

An employer can lessen the likelihood of being liable for violating the anti-discrimination laws, if by the time the conduct occurred, the employer had already taken reasonable steps to prevent discrimination and harassment from occurring. DFEH recently published a guide for California Employers on how to address and prevent workplace harassment. In California, employers must take the following steps, including:

 Affirmatively addressing the subject of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation;

 Expressing strong disapproval of such conduct;

 Developing appropriate sanctions for violating the agency’s anti-discrimination policy;  Informing employees of their right to raise and how to raise the issue of, harassment, discrimination, and retaliation under California (FEHA) and federal (Title VII) law; and

 Developing methods to sensitize all concerned. 175

Indeed, to satisfy several of these steps, the FEHA requires that employers take the following specific actions:  Post the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing’s (DFEH) poster regarding discrimination and harassment in a prominent and accessible location in the workplace;

Preventing Workplace Harassment, Discrimination, and Retaliation ©2019 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 39