• 12
  • December
    2011

In our last posting, we began the discussion about sexual harassment in the restaurant industry. As a positive sign, the number of overall harassment claims has decreased in the past decade or so. In 1997 for instance, there were a total of 15,889 total claims. That number decreased to 11,717 by 2010, a decrease of about 26.3 percent.

The problem is that there are still thousands of claims made each year by people who have been sexually harassed by a supervisor or have had to suffer daily in a hostile work environment. As we mentioned in the prior post, the restaurant industry contributes to a large portion of those complaints. What we did not share - and may surprise many - is that the number of complaints filed by men has increased in the past few years.

It was in 1997 that only 11.6 percent of all harassment claims filed was done so by men. By 2010, that number had increased to 16.4 percent. A young man who worked for a steakhouse shared with his attorney that the he endured months on end of harassment that was serious enough to be considered assault. The employee reported that his employers taught him to react in a stoic manner and that the harassing behavior was almost expected.

One area of harassment that is not easily prevented or controlled is a hostile work environment based on sexual orientation. The federal government still does not recognize sexual orientation harassment, but under California law, homosexual employees have a route to compensation.

As more and more men are filing lawsuits against their employers for the pain that they endured, women continue to be the most prominent target of inappropriate sexual advances in the restaurant industry. No employee should ever feel like they have to suffer through sexual harassment no matter what industry they work in.

Source: Nation's Restaurant News, "Looking at sexual harassment in the restaurant industry," Ron Ruggless, Dec. 5, 2011