hostile work environment
This page is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. Your situation may not fit the claim you think it would, but it may fit another. Only an attorney with comprehensive knowledge of employment law can tell you whether you have a claim. You should always consult with an attorney before taking or refraining from taking any action in your individual situation.
Numerous federal and state statutes prohibited some types of workplace harassment. Under these statutes, an employee has a right to a workplace free of discriminatory harassment. Lawsuits for discriminatory harassment are brought as hostile work environment claims.
workplace harassment rights
What is a hostile work environment?
In the legal sense, a hostile work environment is when harassment in the workplace creates conditions which are so hostile or abusive that the employee’s ability to do the job is affected.
What laws prohibit workplace harassment?
In general, workplace harassment is prohibited under federal law by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and under Michigan law by the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act.
Harassment may also be prohibited by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), and the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
What types of harassment are prohibited?
The law only prohibits harassment that is based on a protected class. Protected classes include: race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, height, weight, familial status, and marital status.
The harassment must be based on one of these protected characteristics. For example, if the harassment consists of making fun of a person’s disability, the harassment is prohibited because it is related to the protected class, i.e., the disability.
If, however, a person is disabled, but the harassment is unrelated to the disability, the harassment may not be prohibited.
Is a hostile work environment based on personality conflict prohibited?
No. The law only prohibits harassment based on protected characteristics. Therefore, if you are the victim of a hostile work environment that is the result of harassment based on a personality conflict you may not have any legal recourse.
However, if the harassment arose because you engaged in protected activity, you may have a claim. For example, if you opposed or reported a violation of the law, and this caused your employer to begin harassing you, you may have a claim for retaliation.
Is all harassment based on a protected class prohibited?
No, or at least not all harassment can form the basis of a viable hostile work environment claim. The statutes prohibiting discriminatory harassment do not explicitly prohibit harassment. In fact, a hostile work environment claim was formulated by the courts to effect the intent of the various statutes’ prohibition on discrimination.
In doing so, the courts imposed certain requirements for harassment to rise to the level Congress intended to prohibit. You can find a detailed description of these requirements in the Do I Have a Claim section below.
In summary, the harassment must be unwelcome and severe or pervasive enough as to alter the conditions of employment.
Unwelcome simply means unwanted.
The severe or pervasive requirement is flexible, and varies depending on the conduct. In rare circumstances, one instance of severe harassment can create a hostile work environment. However, in most cases, the harassment must be somewhat pervasive and severe in order to form the basis for a viable hostile work environment claim.
For instance, one occasion of harassment about a person’s disability will likely not form the basis for a viable hostile work environment. However, if the harassment based on the disability is constant, or if there are a few instances of severe harassment, there very well may be a hostile work environment claim.
What steps can I take if I am the victim of a hostile work environment?
Your first option is to report the harassment to the employer. In the case of harassment based on personality conflict, your employer may have its own policies that still prohibit the harassment. Union agreements may also prohibit other types of harassment.
If you are experiencing harassment based on a protected class, the employer has a duty to take prompt remedial action reasonably calculated to stop the discriminatory harassment. You can find more information on this below.
The civil rights statutes also prohibit retaliation for reporting discriminatory harassment. This means the employer cannot punish you for reporting the harassment.
Your second option is to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. They will investigate for free. However, estimates are that the EEOC only brings a charge approximately 2% of the time.
Your third option is to contact an attorney and pursue a lawsuit for hostile work environment. You need a tough, experienced attorney specializing in employment law to handle these complex claims. At Fett Law, we have over 35 years of experience handling hostile work environment claims and have obtained many substantial recoveries for our clients, including $1.3 million in hostile work environment case based on race and national origin. Contact us today and we will evaluate your claim free of charge. You can learn more about Fett Law by visiting our homepage.
do i have a hostile work environment claim
Harassment that is based on a characteristic protected by the law is prohibited by federal and Michigan statutes. To be successful on a hostile work environment claim, an employee must prove: 1.) the employee belonged to a protected class; 2.) the employee was subjected to unwelcomed harassment; 3.) the harassment was based on the employee’s protected status; 4.) the harassment was sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of employment and create an abusive work environment; and 5.) the employer knew or should have known about the harassment and failed to act.
Although the law is more complicated, in layman’s terms, this means an employee bringing a hostile work environment claim for harassment must show that the employee was subjected to harassment based on a protected status that altered their employment and the employer failed to act.
1. protected class
The first requirement for a hostile work environment claim is that the employee belonged to a protected class. A protected class is a class protected by statute, such as race, sex, disability, or religion. Because we all are members of a protected class, this element is often combined with the third element, and is discussed further below under the Harassment Based on Protected Class section.
2. Unwelcome Harassment
To be successful on a hostile work environment claim for harassment, an employee must prove the harassment was unwelcome. Fulfilling this requirement is normally not an issue. However, if the employee has engaged in the same or similar conduct, there could be issues. An example of this is where two employees joke with each other about their weight. If one of the employees sues, an argument could be made that the harassment was not unwelcomed because that employee engaged in the same type of conduct. If this is the case, it does not mean an employee cannot prevail on a hostile work environment claim. Indeed, many people react this way when dealing with harassment. It simply means that your ability to meet the requirements can be contested.
3. Harassment based on protected class
To bring a claim for hostile work environment, the harassment must be based on a protected characteristic. A protected characteristic is simply a class delineated by statute such as race, sex, or age. Some forms of harassment that are prohibited by law include:
Racial Harassment
Harassment based on Sex
Harassment based on Gender
Harassment based on Age
Harassment based on Disability
Harassment based on National Origin
Harassment based on Religion
Harassment based on Height
Harassment based on Weight
Sexual Harassment
To prove this element of a hostile work environment claim, the employee must demonstrate that the motive for the harassment was the employee’s protected class. For example, an employee may demonstrate the harassment was based on race by presenting evidence that the person perpetrating the harassment used racial slurs towards the employee or otherwise harbored racial resentment.
Harassment that is not based on a protected characteristic is not actionable under the civil rights statutes. This means a hostile work environment claim based on personality conflict is not actionable.
4. severe or pervasive harassment
Even if harassment is based on a protected characteristic, a hostile work environment claim will not be successful if the harassment was not severe or pervasive. In other words, the law does not allow you to bring a lawsuit for hostile work environment for relatively minor harassment, such as a single offensive comment.
In determining whether the harassment meets the severe or pervasive requirement, courts will generally look at the totality of the circumstances. This includes the frequency of the harassment, the severity of the harassment, whether the harassment was physically threatening or humiliating, and whether the harassment unreasonably interfered with an employee’s work performance.
A hostile work environment claim may be based on one incident of harassment. However, this is rare and the harassment must be particularly severe so as to render the work environment hostile. An example of this is sexual assault by a co-worker.
Likewise, a hostile work environment claim for harassment may also be based on a series of offensive comments or acts that occur frequently enough to create a hostile work environment. An example of this would be if a co-worker makes fun of a co-worker’s hearing loss on a daily basis to the point where it begins to interfere with the employee’s work.
Most often, however, a hostile work environment claim for harassment is based on a series of relatively severe harassments. There is no bright line rule for how severe the harassment must be or how often the harassment must occur. Rather, it is often the case that the more severe the harassment, the less frequent the harassment needs to be to create a hostile work environment. Similarly, the more often the harassment occurs, the less severe the harassment needs to be to create a hostile work environment.
The ultimate inquiry will be whether the harassment interfered with the employment and created a hostile or abusive environment.
5. employer liability
To bring a lawsuit against your employer for hostile work environment, you must also establish that the employer knew or should have known about the harassment but failed to take prompt remedial action.
An employee can prove the employer knew of the harassment by demonstrating they filed a complaint to HR or reported the harassment to a supervisor. Likewise, an employee may demonstrate that the employer should have known about the harassment by demonstrating that the harassment was so open, obvious, or pervasive that a reasonably diligent employer would have known about the harassment.
Lastly, to hold the employer accountable for the harassment, an employee must demonstrate that the employer failed to take prompt remedial action reasonably calculated to stop the harassment. This means that when the employer knows of, or should have known of the harassment, they must take action to stop it. If the employer knows of or should have known of the harassment, and does nothing, the employer may be liable. Likewise, if the employer knows of or should have known of the harassment, but delays taking action for a long period of time, allowing the harassment to continue, the employer may be liable.
If the employer takes action immediately upon learning of the harassment and stops the harassment, the employer will likely not be liable. However, if the employer takes action upon learning of the harassment, the harassment subsides for a time, but then begins again, the employer could potentially still be liable if a fact finder concludes that the remedial action was not reasonably adequate to stop the harassment.
Do I Have a hostile work environment lawsuit?
To summarize, to bring a successful hostile work environment claim for harassment, the employee must demonstrate they were subjected to unwelcomed harassment based on a protected class, the harassment interfered with the employee’s employment, and the employer failed to take action to stop the harassment.
Even if you can meet the legal requirements for a hostile work environment claim, the employer may also have defenses available to it that you would need to overcome. Additionally, to have a viable lawsuit for hostile work environment, the damages you may recover must justify the time and expense of bring a hostile work environment lawsuit. You learn more about what your case may be worth by visiting our Know Your Rights, Case Valuation page.
As you may have surmised, the law is complicated and even if you do not believe your situation fits within the above framework there may be other causes of action available to you. The only way to know for sure whether you have a claim is to have an experienced employment attorney review the facts of your case. If you believe you are the victim of a hostile work environment, contact us today and we would be happy to review your case free of charge.