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O’Reilly denied the reports and Fox stood by
their award-winning host as the story heated
up. The O’Reilly Factor was cable television’s
most popular, and likely among the most
profitable, news show. O’Reilly still maintains
his innocence.
The late Roger Ailes, former Fox CEO,
was also accused of sexual harassment and
resigned from his post when a high-profile
Fox anchor sued him last year. As this story
goes to press, it is estimated that Fox will
spend more than $45 million in costs related
to harassment-related litigation – in addition
to those costly severance payouts to O’Reilly
and Ailes.
Three more claims were filed by employees
against Fox News in late May, including one
woman who alleges she was both sexually
harassed and physically threatened by a
former radio news anchor.
The O’Reilly story was gripping, dramatic
and made for sensational headlines.
Harassment lawsuits in the grocery industry
may not hold nearly the same intrigue,
however, understanding new nuances in
the law, and being mindful of the dramatic
impact any related online campaign can
add to the risk is important. A company’s
reputation, once lost, can be challenging
to recover.
The United States Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) states
that “It is unlawful to harass a person
(an applicant or employee) because of that
person’s sex.” According to the EEOC,
harassment can include “sexual harassment”
or unwelcome sexual advances, requests for
sexual favors, and other verbal or physical
harassment of a sexual nature.
The legal definition of sexual harassment
varies by state jurisdiction. While most
agree the contemporary notion of sexual
harassment was conceived in the early 1970s,
it was the 1991 testimony of Anita Hill
against then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee,
Judge Clarence Thomas, that did a great deal
to propel awareness.
The number of sexual harassment cases
reported in the U.S. (and Canada) increased
by 58 percent since the Hill testimony and
continues to climb. At the same time, private
companies and agencies also responded by
launching training programs to deter sexual
harassment.
Mary Kasper, General Counsel and Secretary
for Unified Grocers, Inc., recalls the Hill
testimony and how it raised awareness
among “rank-and-file” employees.
“We all went through this phase, back then,
where we overreacted, when we were overly
careful about what we did and didn’t do,”
she remembers. “We were careful not to
compliment a man on his tie or hug a
co-worker.”
Kasper says recent news events may have
rekindled sensitivities around the harassment
issue. “There’s this weird irony again,”
she adds. “People are talking about Anita
Hill again.”
But the truth is employers have invested
in raising awareness and providing sexual
harassment trainings for going on three
decades and, while several high-profile
cases have dominated news cycles recently,
Kasper suggests the number of sexual
harassment claims for the food industry
haven’t changed much.
“There are very few ‘quid pro quo’ cases –
like those alleged in the O’Reilly case,”
she says. “Gone are the days of only
women filing claims against men.”
Kasper says the industry is seeing claims that
aren’t the classic women-filing-harassment-
claims-against-men. Instead, men are filing
against women, women filing against other
women and men filing against men.
“This is what a diverse workplace brings,”
she says. “As women rise through the ranks,
it’s not necessarily true that women who rise
to senior positions are less likely to behave
badly than men.”
Unified’s general counsel says what makes
the grocery industry so unique is that its
workplace is more diverse.
“That makes it fun, but also makes for a
more sensitized workplace,” she says. “So
what has changed, are more hostile work
environment claims and they’re far more
nuanced. People are more sensitive about
what they do and say but also people are
more sensitive about what they perceive
and what they hear.
“If you are my supervisor and you say
something to me that’s inappropriate,
now the law looks at how it was perceived
by me,” she adds. “In the last five years or
so there’s been a lot of conversation around
intent vs. impact.”
And, says Kasper, a new class of harassment
claim is on the rise: bullying.
“Bullying claims are on the rise and we’ve
trained our people to recognize it when
they see it,” says Kasper. “By bullying, we
don’t mean ‘my boss is mean to me’ or ‘they
didn’t let me sit at the lunch table.’ It’s much
more than that. We have to be careful about
excluding people from conversations and
projects which could ultimately lead to their
career development.”
Companies are doing so much more
to prepare and manage the threat of
“Nowadays the trainings are more
interactive, demonstrate subtleties;
you have to engage on what you
would do.”
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