In January, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal watchdog for anti-discrimination employment laws, issued proposed guidance on unlawful workplace harassment. This guidance is an update to the 1990s guidance. The EEOC issued the proposed guidance, in part, because one-third of the 90,000 charges it received in fiscal year 2015 included allegations of workplace harassment. It also issued the guidance to clarify its position on the varying interpretations taken by courts across the country. All of this is a remnant from the Obama Administration which begs the question if the Trump Administration will alter these proposed guidelines. But for now, this is the EEOC’s new proposed standard.
As employers know, harassment is covered by the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws only if it is based on an employee’s legally protected personal characteristics. This includes race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, and genetic information. Harassment based on the perception that an individual has a particular protected characteristic, such as the belief that a person is a particular race, national origin, or religion, or has a particular sexual orientation is also covered by federal EEO laws even if the perception is wrong.
