Legal Issue Analysis
This paper is a legal analysis issue of an article in the New York Times on September 25, 2007. This article is about a restaurant, Tavern on the Green that has been sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for engaging in “severe and pervasive” harassment of employees. The manager of this restaurant, sexually harassed female employees and used racial epithets toward black and Hispanic employees. The EEOC was suing this restaurant for $1.5 million on behalf of five plaintiffs.
Analysis of Legal Concerns
Although the EEOC singled out one manager for harassing employees, they asserted that the restaurant was guilty of sexual harassment. According to The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (1999), “an employer is always responsible for harassment by a supervisor that culminated in a tangible employment action. If the harassment did not lead to a tangible employment action, the employer is liable unless it proves that it exercised reasonable care to prevent and promptly correct any harassment and the employee unreasonably failed to complain to management or to avoid harm otherwise” (para. 5). In this case, the EEOC asserts that the restaurant knew or should have known of the harassment, and the restaurant failed to prevent and correct the harassment. In addition, the EEOC charges that non-managerial employees engaged in harassment on the basis of sex, race and national origin. Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it is illegal to discriminate in any aspect of employment. This would include harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age. The manager named specifically in this lawsuit harassed black and Hispanic employees addressing them as “ignorant immigrant” and ridiculing their accents. Under Title VII, It is illegal to discriminate against an individual because of birthplace, ancestry, culture, or linguistic characteristics common to a specific ethnic group....