Haynes and Boone, LLP Partner Jason Habinsky talked with Bloomberg Law about state laws that are making it easier to bring workplace sexual harassment claims to court, highlighting the importance for employers to update their anti-discrimination policies and practices.
Here is an excerpt:
Many businesses already have updated their policies to ban behavior considered improper but that might not have met the previous standard for being “severe or pervasive,” removing any confusion where state laws differ on the standard for harassment, lawyers told Bloomberg Law.
Some employers are taking it upon themselves to make harassment easier to prove.
“Many of my clients who operate across the country generally like to pick the employment law which seems the most employee-friendly and apply those uniformly,” Haynes and Boone Partner Jason Habinsky said. “It’s just the attention that has been brought to these important issues that has caused these employers to be proactive.”
The new law clears up any confusion between what might be just “inappropriate,” as opposed to legally “actionable” behavior, making the job of lawyers much easier, Habinsky said.
“That’s a much brighter line for employers to understand what is inappropriate under the law,” he said.
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