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42% of Employers Fail To Provide Harassment Training
A recent survey by TrainRight Solutions reported that 42 percent of the surveyed employers still do not provide training for their employees and supervisors on preventing discrimination complaints. This is despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that discrimination training can help relieve an organization of liability from harassment complaints by using such training as an "affirmative defense" in a lawsuit. According to the survey, liability averaged $50,000 per claim, with some claims exceeding $250,000, not including attorney fees. The survey also found that 40 percent of the respondents reported receiving one or more employee complaint of sexual harassment annually.
One measure of the need for harassment and discrimination training is the annual Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) activity report. In 2005, the EEOC received over 75,000 complaints of employment discrimination (race, sex, including harassment, national origin, religion, age, and disability). It recovered more than $270 million in back wages for the complaining employees through settlements, mediation, and other administrative resolutions. In addition, the EEOC litigated 383 cases in court and collected over $107 million to resolve them, an average of $279,000 per case litigated (before legal expenses). Clearly, dollars spent on training are far less than the cost of litigation. Also, training serves to prevent harassment and to inform employees of the internal procedures to follow so that managers and human resource staff are aware of harassing situations and can stop them immediately.
Kevin J. Pokorny, Training Consultant for HR-OneSource, is a former investigator for the Civil Rights Commission, and is an experienced trainer and practitioner of discrimination law. Kevin can train your supervisors and managers in how to carry out their responsibilities to prevent and respond to harassing situations. He also can train all your employees to clearly understand what harassing behavior is and how to use your company’s complaint procedures. Kevin’s training sessions range from one to three hours all tailored to what an employer wants to accomplish. Please contact Kevin to schedule harassment training at pokornyk@hr-onesource.com or call him at 515-221-1718.
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