I understand that if the company HR has received a complaint of sexual harassment and disciplines then they are free from any civil action. But what happens if the company gets more complaints and the work place becomes more hostile towards the employee due to the harasser's friends? Would this be a seperate complaint or would it be within the scope of the first complaint? I see people coming in here whom have been sexually harassed on the job, and then other co-workers turning on them as the complainant. Thanks, faith

The key to a successful harassment claim will be the employee showing that he/she gave the company every opportunity to fix the problem before showing up in court. In the example that you gave, disciplining the offender based off of the first complaint usually will show that the company is attempting to properly address the situation. Any future complaints build off of the first one. At some point, the question of reasonableness comes into play. If discipline is still a reasonable alternative to termination, then that is fine. If the number of complaints and seriousness of the events makes it seem like the company is not adequately protecting its employees, then all bets are off.

It is very subjective. I recommend continuing to use your HR department until they stop being a useful resource.

It is neraly impossible to answer this in the generic sense. It depends on the specifics of each case. If there is a particular instance we can try and address it but there is no one size fits all answer.

The law does not say that everyone must be happy with you for making a report. There are consequences no matter what you do, and the law doesn't change that. Whether a coworkers reaction rises to the level of retaliation by the employer is case by case.