3.02.06 Harassment Prevention

 

 

RESPONSIBLE CITY AGENCY: Division of Human Resources, EEO Manager

KEYWORDS: Sex, sexual, race, gender, color, national origin, reprisal, harassment, discrimination, confidential, complaint.

1.General

 

1.1 Salt Lake City Corporation is committed to maintaining a work environment free of discrimination and harassment based on a person's sex (including gender harassment, harassment due to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition), race, color, age, religion, disability, ancestry, or national origin, consistent with applicable laws.

1.2 All employees should respect the rights, opinions, and beliefs of others.

1.3 Employment decisions, such as promotions, performance evaluations, pay adjustments, disciplinary or corrective actions, or work assignments, will be based on merit, an employee's abilities and qualifications, or on other job-related criteria.

1.4 Harassment of any person because of sex, sexual orientation, race, color, age, religion, disability, ancestry, or national origin is strictly prohibited, whether directed at an employee or a citizen. Any such harassment is prohibited by this policy whether or not it also violates the equal employment opportunity laws, except that those employees of Salt Lake City under the direct control or supervision of the Salt Lake City Council may be bound only by City ordinance and State and Federal equal opportunity laws

1.5 The following conduct is also prohibited by this policy:

A. Reprisals and retaliation (open hostility, exclusion/ostracism, creation or continued existence of a hostile work environment, demeaning/patronizing remarks or conduct, assignment of demeaning duties not otherwise performed, discriminatory treatment, unreasonable restrictions on compiling evidence of violations of this policy, or similar conduct) against persons making complaints of violations of this policy, or against anyone who testifies, assists, or participates in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing relating to violations of this policy;

B. Intentional breaches of confidentiality of information relating to a complaint of a violation of this policy;

C. Failure to cooperate in an investigation of a complaint of a violation of this policy;

D. Failure of a supervisor to take timely corrective action when the supervisor knew or should have known that a violation of this policy was occurring;

E. Contact with the person making the complaint by a person accused of a violation of this policy regarding the allegations, except during any disciplinary proceeding; and

F. Refusal to implement remedial measures arising out of an investigation into a complaint of a violation of this policy.

1.6. Employees who violate this policy will be disciplined, up to and including termination.

2. Harassment

2.1 Harassment is the creation of a hostile or intimidating environment, in which verbal or physical conduct related to an individual's gender, sexual orientation, race, color, age, religion, disability, ancestry, or national origin, because of its severity and/or persistence, is likely to interfere significantly with the individual's work, or result in a tangible employment action such as hiring, firing, promotion, or demotion.

2.2 Sexual harassment is a form of harassment with specific distinguishing characteristics. It consists of unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:

A. submission to such conduct is made, explicitly or implicitly, a term or condition of an individual's employment;

B. submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as a basis for employment decisions affecting an individual; or

C. such conduct unreasonably interferes with an individual's job performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment, even if it leads to no tangible or economic job consequences.

2.3 Conduct constituting sexual harassment under this policy may include, but is not limited to:

A. Intentional physical conduct which is sexual in nature, such as touching, staring, blocking, pinching, kissing, patting, grabbing, or brushing against another's body;

B. Physical assaults of a sexual nature, such as: rape, sexual battery, molestation, or attempt to commit these assaults;

C. Making unwanted sexual advances, propositions, or other sexual comments; using obscene and insulting terms related to gender; making uncalled for, unwelcome or persistent requests for social contacts; making comments about a person's body, sexuality or sexual experience, or other sexually oriented or sexually demeaning or explicit jokes or comments; giving preferential treatment or promises of preferential treatment in exchange for submission to sexual behaviors; or intentionally or unintentionally making performance of an employee's job more difficult because of an employee's gender;

D. Displaying or publicizing in the work place, or sending via e-mail, sexually oriented displays or publications, such as sexually oriented pictures, posters, cartoons, calendars, graffiti, sexually oriented objects, jokes, stories, or other material;

E. Making or distributing insulting and demeaning comments, jokes, cartoons, or written materials which relate to gender.

2.4 Sexual harassing conduct, as described above, can be perpetrated by a male towards a female; by a female against a male; or by a person of either gender towards a member of their same gender.

* 2.5 Harassment may also include verbal or physical conduct towards another individual based on that person's race, color, age, religion, ancestry, or national origin. Conduct that may constitute harassment includes, but is not limited to, using racial and ethnic epithets, derogatory comments, slurs, or offensive stereotyping, and making jokes about these characteristics.  For example, an actual or depicted noose or burning cross (or any other manifestation of an actual or threatened racially motivated physical assault), a favorable reference to the Ku Klux Klan, an unambiguous racial epithet such as the ôN-word,ö and a racial comparison to an animal would constitute harassment based on race or color.  Harassment based on age may include age based ôjokesö or comments based upon a personÆs age.  Harassment based on national origin or ancestry can take many different forms, including ethnic slurs, workplace graffiti, or other offensive conduct directed towards an individual's birthplace, ethnicity, culture foreign accent or dress associated with a particular nation or ethnic group.  Harassment based on religion may include conduct which is motivated by an individualÆs affiliation with a particular religious group.  For example, harassing an individual because that individual has certain religious beliefs or practices or dresses in a certain way based upon that personÆs religious beliefs. 

2.6 Conduct alleged to constitute harassment under this policy shall be evaluated from the perspective of a reasonable person similarly situated and under all the circumstances.á

2.7 Harassment in violation of this policy may occur even though the conduct occurs outside of the workplace.

3. Complaints

3.1 Employees who are subjected to harassment are encouraged to communicate to the harasser that the demeaning or otherwise harassing conduct, comments, gestures, actions, or other behaviors, are unwelcome.

3.2 All employees must report any harassing conduct that the employee experiences or observes. Normally this report will be made to their supervisor. If the supervisor is part of the alleged problem or if the employee for any reason feels uncomfortable discussing the conduct with his or her supervisor, the employee should complain to any appropriate City official, such as a human resources consultant, City attorney, or the City's EEO Manager.á Employees who work at times outside normal business hours may page their human resource consultant and/or contact the City's EEO Manager's confidential voice mail (535-6024) to arrange an appointment during the employee's work hours or other times.  Any supervisor, manager or other City official who receives a complaint of, or who observes, any harassment must immediately contact the CityÆs EEO Manager.

3.3 The city will protect the confidentiality of harassment complaints to the extent possible.

4. Investigation

4.1 Any City official or employee who receives a complaint of violation of this policy must immediately inform the City's EEO Manager of the complaint.

4.2 Once informed of a complaint of violation of this policy, the City's EEO Manager will conduct or coordinate an unbiased investigation in an expedient manner.

4.3 All appropriate parties will be notified of the findings of the investigation and the resolution of the complaint.

4.4 If harassment is covered by federal anti-discrimination law, employees have the right to file complaints with the Anti-Discrimination Division of the Utah Labor Commission at 160 East 300 South, 3rd Floor, Salt Lake City, UT 84111; Telephone:  801-530-6801, 1-800-222-1238, 801 530-7685áá (TDD)  within one hundred eighty (180) days of the last date of the harassment or with the EEOC at 3300 North Central Avenue, Suite 690, Phoenix, AZ, 85012-2504; Telephone 602-640-5000, 1-800-669-4000, 602-640-5072 (TTY), within 300 days of the same date.

5.  Dissemination

5.1 Department directors and supervisors are responsible for informing all employees within their departments or work units of this policy, and ensuring that employees have open access to report harassing behaviors or other violations of this policy to appropriate City officials without fear of reprisal.

5.2 The Division of Human Resource Management will coordinate and provide training on prevention of harassment.
 

PRE-1995 REFERENCE:           City Policy 4.06.200 (Sexual Harassment)      

CURRENT REFERENCES:     

       City Policy 3.01.01 (Employment, Hiring, and Termination)
       City Policy 3.02.01 (Standards of Conduct)
       City Policy 3.02.02 (Disciplinary Guidelines)
       Executive Order, Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity,

          April 4, 2001
       Executive Order, Nondiscrimination in Employment, April 4, 2001
       EEOC Regulations to Implement the Equal Employment Provisions of the Americans with        

          Disabilities Act, 29 CFR Part 1630
       EEOC Regulations Interpreting the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended

          29 CFR Part 1626
       EEOC Guidelines on Discrimination because of National Origin, 29 CFR Part 1606
       EEOC Guidelines on Discrimination Because of Religion, 29 CFR Part 1605
       EEOC Guidelines on Discrimination Because of Sex, 29 CFR Part 1604 and 1606
       City Code 2.53 (Employment Practices)


INITIAL EFFECTIVE DATE:   October 1 1995

DATE OF LAST REVISION:    October 1, 1995

                                                May 18, 2004, phone number correction

EFFECTIVE DATE OF CURRENT REVISION (Date signed by Mayor):March 8, 2007

 (Additional descriptions of harassment)