Who do I contact for workplace harrassment?

Question

I am currently working for a company who has an employee who is verbally abusive to me and has been for about two years, since I started. I have reported every abusive situation to the supervisors and they fear that if they reprimand him, the employee will file a law suit against the company. They have discovered that he has done this in the past. The problem is, he has been verbally abusive to all the other employees on our shift and our supervisor. He has even shoved another supervisor duing an altercation in another department. The company out of fear of a lawsuit from him and the Union will not handle the situation. He has made numerous accusations that have been proven wrong and outright lies in order to turn other employees against each other. One of his accusations has even involved our supervisor and a fellow employee to lose two days work without pay. The company was supposed to give a letter of reprimand to him for filing false accusations, they never did. How I know, this was when he went to the Union president demanding that the letter be put in his file. I feel that he is purposely trying to be fired so he could file a lawsuit.

My problem is, two days a week I have to work with him without a supervisor on duty. During these days he has verbally abused me, cursing at me, and calling me a "****** Christian." He has made numerous accusation against me telling the union and the other shift employees that I am using my cell phone to record and video tape their conversations. Not only is this not true, my cell phone does not have any such features. Since I have confronted the Union about the problems I've been having, they also refuse to do anything. I continued to report the problem to the supervisors. Just recently the Union voted to install new regulations which say that if anybody goes to management to report a problem they will be fined a fee equivilent to one years union dues which is about $500.00. So in other words, even though everybody knows about the problem, I am not allowed to report any problems to management, therefore I don't have any recourse if this person's abuse continues or even worsens. On December 17th, I endured 30 mins of verbal abuse with name calling and cursing. I informed my employer that I don't know what else to do and that I want to transfer somewhere else with the same pay because the situation between us is only getting worse and I felt very threatened and I fear that physical violence may be next.

My question is : If the company doesn't do anything to resolve this situation what is my next choice of option since I do not want to quit? Also, I want to know what is the legality of the ruling the union put into the bylaws preventing an employee from reporting such actions?

Answer 1

I would contact or go and see your local Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Office/Department of Labor. Ask them about the legality of the union putting in that rule because I believe it is against the law and you are protected under the law for reporting issues and complaints to management. I would explain to them the types of issues and problems this person has caused and your fear of it escalating to physical violence. Workplace violence, name calling regarding your religious or perceived religious choices are against the law. You can file a complaint with the E.E.O.C. and they will take it from there. There is no fee to file a charge, and if they do an investigation about it and find a cause they will offer to support you or file a civil suit if the company does not address the problem.

E-mail me if you have further questions.

Good luck!

Answer 2

The steps in reporting workplace harassment are:

1) Report it to your supervisor.

2) Contact Human Resources / Personnel

3) If you don't get satisfaction from either of these, then your last step would be to contact the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).

Answer 3

It's completely illegal for the union to forbid whistle-blowing. You are protected by the Whistleblower's Protection Act.

I suggest you explain to your company that YOU will be filing a lawsuit if proper action is not taken.

You could also take your case to the press.

Answer 4

There should be an association for the workers in your company that can deal with this, you can file a law suit against them if they dont get it together...no one should be harrassed in the workplace...try looking around online or reading bulletins around your workplace or even try reading the contracts they had you sign when you first started (if you can find them) trust me, theres some one who can deal with this..Its not right for them to charge a fee for you to report whats going on weather its harrasment or other problems. (Thats what their job is!: Helping you do your job safely and peacefully)