If you have staff working from home as a result of changes wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, you still need to stay on top of your obligations to protect your staff from sexual harassment.
Not being physically in the office doesn’t seem to have had an effect on employee sexual harassment as employers paid out more than $65 million in sexual harassment settlements and court awards in 2020, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
While most workplace sexual harassment has historically taken place in person at the workplace, a good portion has migrated online in the form of harassment by workplace collaboration apps, e-mail, chat and texting. Just because you can’t see the harassment, doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Don’t Forget Remote Workers in Sexual Harassment Prevention Policies