i work in for a small company in Southern Indiana. the owner is fooling around with another female employee.i have walked in several times when she has been sitting on her desk, legs spread and his hand in her crouch. about a year ago, the filing cabinets were caddy-corner to his computer. i had to kneel down to file. he asked me a couple of times to unzip his pants while i was down there. on 3/17/06, he told me to perform oral sex with another male employee, and that same morning, stated he wanted every swing ---- and wet ----- in the office on Fridays. i have since seen a labor law attorney, and he seems i have a case. i have no money, and have gone to his brother (which is my boss in his absence) he just said "He did"? nothing has been done. i have became physically ill in the mornings, and this is most created tension in the office and hostile working environment. what do i do and what steps do i take. i have never been put in this position before and dont know what do to. i cannot afford to quit, but have been seeking employement elsewhere for a few months. thank you for any input anyone can give me

tigerbythetail in Indiana

Please edit your post so that every word is not capitalized. It is very hard to read as it is.

In my opinion, the answer is "It depends". Do you have an HR department? Have you addressed the issue with them? While the behavior is obviously sexual and harassing in nature, a lot of emphasis is placed on notifying the company of the issue so that they may address it. I'm not sure if Indiana is different in this aspect, but I would say the company would have to be given a chance to fix the situation before someone jumps straight to court.

Yes I have complained and all I get is "He said that?" We have no human resources department, due to this is a very small company.

If your employer has 15 or more employees, you can discuss your situation with the federal agency, EEOC. The number for their contact center is 1-800-669-4000. If not, contact your state's human rights agency.

CBG MONITOR


Now, am I in the place you want me to be?

Um, do you have a question or something to add to your previous post? If so, you are in the right place.

Yes. You are. If you have comments to make on the issue of sexual harassment, this is where to make them, not in a post that was started a over a year ago and has had no action for months.

Update..............we have attorneys and it has been filed in court. Charges are
1 Sexual Harassment
2 Sexually Hostile Work Environment
3 Wages Due We have never been paid overtime. We are being paid as salaried employees. To do this legally, you must be a supervisor who can make company decisions, paid for hours worked or not worked. Due to this, we are "miss classified" according to the IRS. He owes us both a huge amont of overtime pay, plus the pay he has cut when we had to be off.

A 4th charge was filed yesterday: Retalation. It is illegal to fire an employee when a suit is filed, or change any of their job duties, pay day etc. The man we work for has done the retalation by taking 3 job duties away from me.

We found out that Sexual Harassment in the workplace is quite a bit more serious than people think. So if you have any questions, please feel free to post. I don't claim to know it all, but have learned alot from our attornies. People should not have to take this.

Actually, being a supervisor is only one of the ways an employee may qualify as exempt. Not knowing what you do it is hard to comment on whether it is appropriate in your case or not, but as you have an attorney working with you, you should be following their advice anyway.

You can find out more here www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/fs17a_overview.htm

Yes, you are right. We do have attornies. They are the ones who informed us that we are misclassified as payment to an employee. I did some research under the IRS website as well. You have to be able to make company decisions on your own. A supervisor does not necessarily make company decisions without consulting upper management/owners. We are being paid as contract labor, 1099 form. We cannot make any decisions with out consulting the owner, but yet if we are off, our pay is cut. Salaried employees get paid regardless if they work 20 or 80 hours per week, or if they are off work. Contract labor is a person who work is contracted to do, not office employee.

Well you are still not entirely correct, but I wil leave it to your attorney make sure that the facts are straight. Technically FLSA does not apply to Independent Contractors paid on 1099's. It sounds more like your attorney feels you should really have been classified as an employee.

Just having to consult the owner isn't enough to nullify an exemption. This seems to be less applicable to your case though. Just being salaried also doesn't mean you always have to be paid if you do not work, but the rules for docking pay are different than for those paid as non-exempt.

As I stated, we are not contract labor, therefore are not to receive 1099 but W2 forms. Yes, you are right. We are leaving it to the lawyers, but under the IRS website, misclassifaction of employees, we do fall into that catagory.