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What is it about retaliation that employers don't get?
I’m trying to understand why an employer would fire an employee who truthfully answered, during an employer’s internal investigation, whether she had witnessed inappropriate behavior by a department director. This is in response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on January 26, 2009, that the retaliation clause under Title VII extends to employees who speak out about discrimination when answering questions during an employer’s internal investigation (Crawford vs. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee).
What can employers learn from this case?
1. Firing an employee for responding to questions in an internal investigation is a capital offense. If you do that, you should be sued and pay a hefty penalty. By the way, you just destroyed any trust and integrity you had with employees.
2. Conduct an investigation to follow up on rumors of sexual harassment to determine if they are valid. That is an employer’s legal obligation.
3. Ask open-ended questions to employees without leading them on. Example in this case is the human resources officer asked employees if they witnessed “inappropriate behavior” on the part of the director. Let employees tell you what they think is inappropriate behavior, rather then using the phrase “sexual harassing behavior.”
4. When you ask employees questions, be prepared to listen and keep their answers confidential.
5. Tell employees prior to asking questions that no retaliation will occur by their participation. And, be prepared to back up your statement.
6. You want to know from employees about what is and is not going in their work environment. So, provide a safe and confidential manner to do this.
7. Be prepared to hear answers to your questions. If you ask, employees will tell you.
8. Follow up with your investigation. If the evidence substantiates there was a violation of your company’s harassment policy, take appropriate and immediate corrective action.
9. Train all managers and supervisors about what retaliation is and how to behave when asking questions of employees.
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