Attorney Marcia K. Schultz, a partner at Carlsmith Ball Law Firm, yesterday said under federal law, an employer cannot refuse to hire an applicant based on any of the protected classifications of discrimination such as an applicant’s race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, citizenship and veteran status.
“You cannot refuse to hire anybody just because that applicant, for example, is 40 years or older, or refuse anyone a job because of his or her skin color or nationality, because a woman is pregnant, or because a person is disabled,” Schultz said.
She, however, stated that there are limitations for each form of discrimination.
Schultz said sexual harassment in the workplace is an issue that employers must know how to handle because it is very common.
She said sexual harassment can be physical contact including assault, coerced sexual acts, grabbing, pinching, patting and touching; verbal remarks including demands for sexual favors, lewd comments, dirty jokes and derogatory remarks, or non-verbal conduct including sexual gestures, wolf whistling and cat calls, winking and showing sexual pictures like screensavers in the workplace.
“Sexual harassment happens when it is pervasive enough and it is not welcome, when it interferes with work or creates an intimidating or hostile environment,” Schultz said.
“The bottom line is that employers must prohibit harassment in the office such as men harassing men, women harassing women, men harassing women, supervisors harassing subordinates or subordinates harassing supervisors, outsiders like vendors and customers harassing employees or the other way around,” Schultz said.
A lot of victims don’t complain or just choose to keep quiet but others file complaints, she added.
In handling harassment complaints, Schultz said employers must not ignore them.
“Listen to the complainant but don’t agree, don’t sympathize but empathize so the victim will not regret talking to you, don’t promise confidentiality or promise to fix the problem because you may not be able to do so, and promise to investigate on the matter,” Schultz advised.
She said failure to comply with the law may result in a government agency investigation and a lengthy, costly lawsuit.
The employers were given tips on the legal aspects of personnel record keeping and Equal Employment Opportunity Compliance by attorney Vince Seman during the first part of yesterday’s seminar.
Attended by employers from the public and private sectors, the half-day seminar held at the Pacific Islands Club Charley’s Cabaret yesterday morning was hosted by the Society for Human Resource Management-CNMI chapter, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and Carlsmith Ball Law Firm.
