ation costs and court awarded damages hurts businesses as well. Before 1991, Title VII entitled sexual harassment victims to collect only back pay, lost wages and, if they had been forced to leave, to be reinstated in their jobs. They got noting for pain and suffering. Today victims are collecting more money than can be won playing the lottery.There are many laws to follow in sexual harassment cases in the courts. The EEOC had a set of guidelines they followed but overthrew them. They claimed guidelines did not constitute “the law”, but courts relied on them for clarification and adopted some definitions and standards for decisions on sexual harassment in the workplace.The Supreme Court has a two-part test for an employer's defense. They must show they took “reasonable” care to prevent and correct any sexual harassment in the workplace, and the employee “unreasonably” failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer. In customer harassment cases, employers are accountable if the employee complains of sexual harassment and they are ignored. They are liable if they know about the harassment and do nothing even though the employee does not complain. Companies must do more than request an apology from the harasser. If the harassment is so severe and pervasive that it is reasonable to conclude the employer should have known of it they are responsible for that too. When is it “severe and pervasive”? Or what is defined as “reasonable” and “unreasonable”? These open-ended questions leave vagueness in the court system. Employees should not feel as if they cannot talk about sex in the workplace at all. Someone can still comment on how nice someone looks or tell a sexual joke. The Supreme Court allows for sexual talk up until an employee is discriminated against. The key ingredient of sexual harassment is some form...
