US diplomats in Pakistan facing harassment: State Department

Such harassment and obstruction is described by US embassy staff as “deliberate, willful and systematic,” according to the 76-report by the department’s watchdog, the office of inspector general.

“Official Pakistani obstructionism and harassment, an endemic problem in Pakistan, has increased to the point where it is significantly impairing mission operations and program implementations,” the report said.

Harassment included such things as delaying visas for staff, blocking shipments of materials for aid programs and construction work, and surveillance of staff and contractors.

The official report, made available Thursday, comes after a February fact-finding tour of the US diplomatic missions in Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar and Lahore.

It urged US officials to ensure that the issue of harassment is raised in bilateral talks with the Pakistani government.

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HARASSMENT PREVENTION TRAINING: RECENT CASES REMIND US OF THE IMPORTANCE

In 1996, Massachusetts General Laws c.151B (“Chapter 151B”) was amended to require employers to distribute written sexual harassment policies (with specific required provisions) to all new employees and to every employee on at least an annual basis.  That law also encourages employers to provide sexual harassment training to all of their employees on a regular basis.  Unfortunately, many employers still fail to take those steps, exposing themselves to legal liability and the prospect of substantial damages awards, including back wages for terminated employees, emotional distress, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

 Moreover, many employees are not aware that they can be held individually liable for engaging in or aiding and abetting sexual harassment.  In one recent case, Martin v. Irwin Industrial Tool Company, et al., No. 12-30048-KPN (D. Mass. May 3, 2012), the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts held that rank-and-file employees (i.e., not only supervisors and managers) may be liable for harassment and retaliation under Chapter 151B.

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2 Univ. of Akron Employees Resign after Harassment Claim

Two University of Akron employees, including a Republican candidate for Summit County, Ohio sheriff, have resigned their positions after a university investigation concluded they violated the school’s sexual harassment policy.

Sheriff candidate Randy Rivers and his supervisor, Michael Jalbert, stepped down from their jobs.

Their actions followed an Aug. 3 complaint filed by a female employee that alleged Rivers began sexually harassing her after he joined the university in July 2011 as part-time commander of the Law Enforcement Training Center, according to an article Saturday in The Beacon Journal. Jalbert was criticized for not adequately responding to her concerns.

The newspaper declined to name the woman consistent with its policy on sexual harassment and sex crimes cases.

Rivers told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday that the university pressured him to leave his post. He said that he had not been warned that any statements were considered inappropriate.

“I told these people yesterday that I felt like I was blind-folded and being led down a set of railroad tracks,” Rivers said.

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In harassment case, Supreme Court ponders: Who qualifies as a supervisor?

Imagine this scene of workplace harassment, envisioned by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.:You really hate country music. The senior employee in your office picks the music everyone listens to.“And the senior employee says . . . ‘If you don’t date me, it’s going to be country music all day long,’ ” Roberts hypothesized.

Roberts and his Supreme Court colleagues on Monday were debating the standards for when a co-worker becomes more like a supervisor and thus opens the company up for damages under federal employment discrimination laws.

Some federal courts have said that only someone who can hire and fire people is a supervisor under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Other courts, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, have said that definition is too limiting and that the law should cover those who have the ability to control a co-worker’s daily work activities, regardless of their title or job description.

The distinction is important in employment discrimination law. If a supervisor is creating a hostile work environment or threatening to fire an employee, the employer can be held liable. But if a co-worker does so, the company is liable only if it knew about the treatment and did nothing to stop it.

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US: Sexual Violence, Harassment of Immigrant Farmworker

(New York) – Hundreds of thousands of immigrant farm worker women and girls in the United States face a high risk of sexual violence and sexual harassment in their workplaces because US authorities and employers fail to protect them adequately, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The current US Senate bill reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) would go some way toward fixing the problem and should be enacted, but much more needs to be done, Human Rights Watch said.


The 95-page report, “Cultivating Fear: The Vulnerability of Immigrant Farm workers in the US to Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment,” describes rape, stalking, unwanted touching, exhibitionism, or vulgar and obscene language by supervisors, employers, and others in positions of power. Most farm workers interviewed said they had experienced such treatment or knew others who had. And most said they had not reported these or other workplace abuses, fearing reprisals. Those who had filed sexual harassment claims or reported sexual assault to the police had done so with the encouragement and assistance of survivor advocates or attorneys in the face of difficult challenges.

“Rape, groping, and obscene language by abusive supervisors should not be part of the hard labor conditions that immigrant farm workers endure while producing the nation’s food,” said Grace Meng, researcher in the US Program at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “Instead of being valued for their contributions, immigrant farm workers are subject to a dysfunctional immigration system and labor laws that exclude them from basic protections most workers take for granted.”

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Can current retirees feel secure with today’s insecure economy?

It’s a tough situation for anyone to figure out. Let’s examine some of the challenges that are facing current retirees. The stock market has been on a roller coaster ride for the past few years, all of the fluctuations are bound to make nervous those who depend on stocks and bonds as part of their portfolio.

The media is constantly warning us about some fiscal crisis or cliff we are going to go over, which makes investors and those who rely on the stocks quite apprehensive about what will come to pass and quite anxious.

Even though retirement can be an exciting time, the current economic climate makes individuals rethink their retirement strategies. They may wish to push back their retirement or to continue working another part time job while retired to think about stretching their dollar further.

Financial planners suggest that retirees know what they want to do with their money, that they take stock of their money prior to retirement, and make decisions about how they want to spend their golden years. There are certain things that individuals can do with their retirement funds and taking stock of all of these choices prior to retirement can make good economic sense. Make sure to take the following steps when planning for retirement.

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FAIR WAGES FOR WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES

Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) allows entities holding what are called “special wage certificates” to pay their disabled workers less than the federal minimum wage.

These entities are almost always segregated workplaces, sometimes called “sheltered workshops,” that employ workers with various disabilities, including sensory, physical, and cognitive or developmental disabilities. Federal law requires that certain goods and services procured by the federal government be purchased from these sheltered workshops in order to provide workers with disabilities with employment, but these workers do not have the same protections that other American workers have. Most importantly, over 300,000 workers with disabilities do not receive the federal minimum wage.

People with disabilities have the right and ability to work in the same jobs earning the same wages as nondisabled workers.  There are many examples of individuals with significant disabilities who, when provided the proper training and support, have acquired a competitive job skill to earn at least minimum wage.  Very few, if any, disabled or nondisabled individuals acquire a competitive job skill through performing menial tasks in sheltered, segregated, subminimum-wage work environments.  We must set higher expectations and provide real training and support for all people to become fully participating members of society.

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Disability Insurance Benefit Amounts

For claims beginning on or after January 1, 2012, weekly benefits range from $50 to a maximum of $1011. To qualify for the maximum weekly benefit amount ($1011) an individual must earn at least $23,872.73 in a calendar quarter during the base period.

EDD Debit Card^SM

The EDD, with Bank of America, will provide eligible individuals with an EDD Debit Card^SM that is valid for three years from the date of issue. Once the card is received, all authorized benefit payments will then be deposited to the EDD Debit Card^SM account. The same EDD Debit Card^SM will be used to deliver both State Disability and Unemployment Insurance payments. No action is required to receive the EDD Debit Card^SM.

Weekly Benefit Amount

An individual’s weekly benefit amount is approximately 55 percent of his or her earnings up to the maximum weekly benefit amount. He or she may receive up to 52 weeks worth of Disability Insurance (DI) benefits. The daily benefit amount is calculated by dividing an individual’s weekly benefit amount by seven. The maximum benefit amount is calculated by multiplying an individual’s weekly benefit amount by 52 or adding the total wages subject to State Disability Insurance (SDI) tax paid in an individual’s base period, whichever is less.

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Counting People with Disabilities

As most visitors to this blog are aware, the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990 represented a major milestone. The law guaranteed equal opportunity for people with disabilities in public accommodations, commercial facilities, employment, transportation, state and local government services and telecommunications. A common question, however, that still pops up during discussions of disability policy is, “How many people with disabilities are there in the United States?

Coinciding with the 22^nd anniversary of the ADA, the Census Bureau released a new report – Americans With Disabilities: 2010 – that presented a new look at the prevalence of a wide range of specific disabilities, the degree of severity and the well-being of the population with disabilities. The report showed the number of people with disabilities increasing over the previous five years to 56.7 million people in 2010 (54.4 million in 2005), while the proportion of the population with a disability remaining unchanged at 18.7 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population.

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Nearly 1 in 5 People Have a Disability in the U.S., Census Bureau

About 56.7 million people — 19 percent of the population — had a disability in 2010, according to a broad definition of disability, with more than half of them reporting the disability was severe, according to a comprehensive report on this population released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The report, Americans with Disabilities: 2010, presents estimates of disability status and type and is the first such report with analysis since the Census Bureau published statistics in a similar report about the 2005 population of people with disabilities. According to the report, the total number of people with a disability increased by 2.2 million over the period, but the percentage remained statistically unchanged. Both the number and percentage with a severe disability rose, however. Likewise, the number and percentage needing assistance also both increased.

“This week, we observe the 22nd anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, a milestone law that guarantees equal opportunity for people with disabilities,” said Census Bureau demographer Matthew Brault. “On this important anniversary, this report presents a barometer of the well-being of this population in areas such as employment, income and poverty status.”

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Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

As an employer, you have a responsibility to maintain a workplace that is free of sexual harassment. This is your legal obligation, but it also makes good business sense. If you allow sexual harassment to flourish in your workplace, you will pay a high price in poor employee morale, low productivity, and lawsuits.

The same laws that prohibit gender discrimination prohibit sexual harassment. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act is the main federal law that prohibits sexual harassment. (For more information on Title VII, see Nolo’s article Federal Antidiscrimination Laws.) In addition, each state has its own anti-sexual harassment law.

This article explains what sexual harassment is and provides some prevention strategies. If you need more detailed information on your legal obligations, or your company has been hit with a harassment complaint, pick up a copy of The Essential Guide to Handling Workplace Harassment & Discrimination, by Deborah C. England (Nolo).

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Female Bosses Sexually Harassed More Than Subordinates, Study FindS

She’s the fresh-faced secretary, preyed on by the high-powered partner. She’s the college intern, who becomes the butt of her boss’s dirty jokes. She’s the junior associate, propositioned by her manager. When it comes to sexual harassment in the workplace, popular culture has a favorite image: The powerful man leching on his female underling.

But according to a new study, female supervisors are actually sexually harassed more than female subordinates. The researchers at the University of Maine and the University of Minnesota analyzed the Youth Development Study, which surveyed 1,010 individuals at regular intervals, starting when they were high school freshmen in St. Paul, Minn., in 1988. They looked at the responses from when these individuals were 29 and 30, and then interviewed 33 of them in depth.

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Slip-ups To Avoid When Conducting Performance Appraisal Meetings

Appraisals can attract different responses from different employees. However, within organizations, these meetings are responded to with a lot of negativity. Many managerial offices fail to understand the power behind an appraisal as well as how it can damage the confidence and overall performance of employees.

The power behind employee evaluations

Handling performance appraisal meetings is important. When done amicably, it can get your staff stirred up to reach their personal goals and those of the company. In most meetings, there are disagreements or tension that builds between the employers and the employees.

You need to be able to consider the aftermath of the appraisal. This is because your employees should always maintain a positive attitude of the organizations. In most cases, the employer ends up having the upper hand in the meeting and the employees becomes distasteful over their duties. Performance levels of an organization depend on how these meetings are conducted.

Biggest mishaps in performance appraisals by management officers.

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Sexual Harassment Still Pervasive in the Workplace

Want to hear a collective groan throughout your office? Mention a mandatory sexual harassment meeting. “Nobody ever wants to sit through that three-hour seminar of old, grainy videos and lectures,” says human resource manager Karen Holt.

And yet, sexual harassment continues to be a pervasive force in the workplace. And no, it is not confined to politicians, members of the clergy, movie stars or professional athletes.

According to an AOL Jobs Survey, one in six persons has been sexually harassed in the workplace. Out of those harassed, 43 percent say it was from a manager and 51 percent say it was from a peer. Only 35 percent of people harassed reported it; women (47 percent) are more likely to do so than men (21 percent).

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Bullying and harassment

If you are the victim of bullying or harassment it’s important to know how they are seen in the eyes of the law. ATL solicitor Elizabeth Doherty explains.Bullying and harassment in the workplace are serious matters.

All individuals have the right to be treated with dignity and respect, and work in an environment that is free from unlawful discrimination or degrading treatment. It is an employer’s responsibility to take reasonable steps to prevent such behaviour taking place and to have policies and procedures in place for dealing with the bullying and harassment of staff.

The terms ‘bullying’ and ‘harassment’ are often used interchangeably and it is not uncommon for bullying to be considered a form of harassment. However, in law they are two very different points.

The Equality Act 2010 defines harassment as: “Unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic, and the conduct has the purpose or effect of… violating an individual’s dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for an individual.”

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11 Sexual Harassment Settlements Cost the State $5 Million

ALBANY — The state paid out at least $5 million to settle sexual harassment cases from 2008 to 2010, according to newly released records provided by the New York attorney general’s office under the Freedom of Information Law.

Five of the 11 cases involved a single agency, the State Department of Corrections and Community Services, and three involved employees of public universities. The largest settlement, nearly $1.8 million, came in January 2009 after the state settled a nearly nine-year-old case involving allegations brought by Lisa Borrello, a cook at the Lakeview Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility. Ms. Borrello alleged that a supervisor sexually harassed and physically threatened her, and gave favorable treatment to male employees.

Scrutiny of the state’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against public officials and workers has increased since the Assembly acknowledged it had used more than $100,000 in public money to settle two accusations against a prominent Brooklyn Democratic assemblyman, Vito J. Lopez.

The attorney general’s office said the records it produced this week, all reflecting cases from the years when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, was attorney general, represented only a portion of the harassment settlements paid by the state; the office said it was continuing to review its files for other records.

The Lopez settlement has been controversial in part because it included confidentiality language intended to keep the allegations secret. None of the settlements for which records were released this week included confidentiality provisions, suggesting that the use of such language is not common in government settlements, although the state previously released documents indicating that in one racial bias case, Mr. Cuomo’s office had approved a settlement with confidentiality language.

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Hey baby! Women speak out against street harassment

(CNN) – Head down, look straight ahead. Earbuds in, volume off. Walk quickly, but with purpose. Don’t make eye contact unless you need to. Look behind you every few blocks, make sure you’re not being followed. Don’t be obvious.

It’s not nighttime. You’re not in a known drug zone, or the sketchy part of town.

This is simply how many women steel themselves when walking down a city street in broad daylight, or even when boarding crowded public transportation. Why? Because many women, regardless of age, weight, or appearance, say they’ve heard something along the lines of “Hey baby, you want some of this?” or “I like what I see” or “nice ass.”

All of those statements are sexual harassment. And while some men might consider them compliments, to many women, they are a threat.

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Working without fear: workplace sexual harassment in 2012

In late October 2012, the Australian Human Rights Commission released its third report on workplace sexual harassmententitled Working Without Fear: Results of the 2012 Sexual Harassment National Telephone Survey. The Commission considered the prevalence, nature and reporting of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces since the survey was last conducted in 2008¹ and made several key findings on these issues based on the data obtained.

Summary

• Workplace sexual harassment damages workplace morale and can significantly affect performance and productivityin your organisation.
• The results of the 2012 survey show that sexual harassment is prevalent in Australian workplaces, male co-workers are most likely to be the perpetrators of harassment, and targets of harassment are less likely to report or complainabout sexual harassment.
• Despite legislative enactments, including changes to the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) in 2011 to enhance safeguards around sexual harassment, levels of workplace sexual harassment have not fallen by any real or significant extent.
• To create workplaces that are safe, secure and free from all forms of sexual harassment, a holistic approach is needed involving leadership and commitment from the government, unions and employers across all industry sectors.
• Employers need to consider new and innovative ways of addressing workplace sexual harassment, including effective prevention strategies, educating and training employees at all levels, improving access to reporting mechanisms and encouraging reporting of sexual harassment. 

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Is office harassment really a thing of the past?

In her history of the feminist movement, In Our Time, Susan Brownmiller writes about the moment when the term “sexual harassment” first began being used publicly.

It was the mid-1970s, and a group of women activists at Cornell University in the US were organising a “speak-out”, and wanted to define their subject matter appropriately. They considered “sexual intimidation”, “sexual coercion” and “sexual exploitation on the job”, before finally arriving at sexual harassment. That was it. That was the term that described what women had been experiencing in offices and factories the world over, a description that could encompass everything: the suggestive, slyly intimidating remarks from bosses, the badgering for sexual favours, the constant comments on a woman’s appearance, the groping, knee-touching, bottom-slapping shame of it all.

The problem was ripe to be named. In the past week, as part of the fall-out from Jimmy Savile‘s alleged predations, there have been constant reminders of that era, of the casual sexism, often tipping into outright misogyny, that affected so many women in the workplace. DJ Liz Kershaw, for instance, has said she was routinely groped by another presenter when working at Radio 1 in the 1980s; while broadcasting, she would suddenly feel “wandering hands up my jumper fondling my breasts”.

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Should employers have the right to implement policies to search employees for concealed weapons?

The world is not as safe as it was 20 years ago. There are more people, more guns, and more violence than ever before. It has become increasingly easy for an average, every day citizen to purchase a gun. Guns are everywhere.

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