Restaurant Must Adapt Harassment Complaint Procedures To Understanding Of Teenage Employees
Knowing that it had many teenage employees, a restaurant company was obligated to suit its complaint procedures to the understanding of the average teenager in order to avoid liability under Title VII for any harassment of a teenage employee by her supervisor.
The mechanism by which employees can complain
about harassment by a supervisor must be reasonable, and what is reasonable
depends on the employment circumstances, and therefore, among other things, on
the capabilities of the class of employees in question. In the case at bar, fact
issues existed as to whether an employer provided a reasonable mechanism for a
16-year-old employee to complain about alleged sexual harassment by a restaurant
manager.
E.E.O.C. v. V & J Foods, Inc.
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals’ jurisdiction includes Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.