by Anthony Pardi

Created on: January 06, 2011   Last Updated: January 11, 2011

The first thing you must be sure to do is establish the act of harassment. Improper conduct is not sexual harassment if it is welcomed. For this reason, it is important that you have communicated (either verbally, in writing, or by your own actions) to the harasser that the conduct makes you uncomfortable and that you want it to stop. This is to be done preferably with witnesses to said confrontation.

Once you have proven undeniably that this is true case of harassment you can now proceed. The next step is to tell your supervisor, your human resources department or some other department or person within your organization who has the power to stop the harassment. If possible, tell them in writing. Keep a copy of any written complaint you make to your employer.

It is very important that you report the harassment because your employer must know or have reason to know about the harassment in order to be legally responsible for a co-worker, client or customer’s actions. Even if your harasser was your supervisor, you may need to show that you reported the harassment to your employer or give a good reason why you were unable to do so.

If you are planning to file a lawsuit in federal or state court, you must first file a formal sexual harassment complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and/or your state’s fair employment agency. If you are a federal employee, follow federal guidelines on how to lodge a sexual harassment complaint. You can obtain these guidelines from the Federal Labor Relations Authority.

Depending on which state you reside in you have a certain amount of time in which to pursue action against your harasser and must follow these time lines. After you have filed a formal complaint with the EEOC or your state’s fair employment agency, you can now consider filing your lawsuit.You can sue for money damages, to get your job back, and you can also ask the court to make your employer change its practices to prevent future sexual harassment from occurring. This would prevent any future accounts of harassment from occurring due to known problems in the polices of said employer.

To completely understand the proceedings you are about to undergo, do your own research and contact the appropriate government agencies. Start your search with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as this agency enforces workplace anti-discrimination laws.

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