Defending Sexual Harassment Claims Against Employers

Mar 10, 2015 | Written by: Deborah B. Rosenthal, Esq. | Share

On Feb. 11, 2015, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued Aguas v. New Jersey, a case that has significant implications for employers in sexual harassment cases, and raised the bar on what a Plaintiff needs to demonstrate to win the case against his or her employer. 

The Court said that the employer can properly defend a sexual harassment claim by demonstrating that it “exercised reasonable care” to prevent and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior by a supervisor, or that the employee “unreasonably failed to take advantage of the preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer”.  

This case can be referenced by employers in the following situations:

1. If an employee reports sexually harassing behavior and the employer promptly responds to investigate the complaint and correct the wrongful activity as appropriate;
2. When the employer provides proper training of all supervisors and employees;
3. When the employer has complete and thorough policies prohibiting sexually harassing conduct and advising what employees should do if they believe they have been harassed;
4. When the employer has proper preventive or corrective opportunities in place but the employee fails to take advantage of them.