New York City Personal Injury Blog

A report released in late 2017 showed that at least 38 percent of Interior Department employees reported facing harassment or discrimination at the workplace. As a result, the Interior Secretary announced a zero tolerance policy regarding this type of behavior by agency staff. The mandate is expected to face its first test with the admission of inappropriate behavior by a top-ranking official at the National Park Service.

The incident, which was first reported by the Washington Post, occurred when the deputy director allegedly made obscene gestures in a hallway at Interior headquarters. The actions were described by an anonymous agency employee who witnessed the alleged action after P. Daniel Smith first took office in March. Interior Secretary Zinke reported the accusation to the Inspector General that same month.

Most people know that construction is a rather risky career path. There are many dangerous elements to a construction job, including the potential to fall from a height, heavy machinery, moving supplies and the potential for an electrocution. Anyone who works in this field could end up severely hurt or worse. However, certain people who work in construction face more statistical risk than others in this industry.

A recent report published jointly by American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) found that young, immigrant Hispanic construction workers are at the highest level of risk for injury or death while at work. For those who fall into this demographic or those who love and depend on someone who does, understanding the potential risks is critical.

New York employers that fail to adequately address sexual harassment complaints could leave themselves open to gender discrimination lawsuits. In fact, one law professor says that the current sexual harassment scandal at Nike illustrates the dangers of ignoring such claims.

According to an article in The New York Times, women working at Nike have endured sexual harassment for years. Some examples of the alleged behavior include a manager writing an email about an employee's breasts, a manager boasting about having condoms in his bag and a manager calling a female employee a sexist, derogatory name. These incidents were reported to human resources, but nothing was done. This is possibly because the company felt the complaints did not rise to the high legal standard for sexual harassment.

While federal statistics show that sexual harassment complaints are going down, many women in New York City and across the country continue to experience unwanted advances and other forms of harassment on the job. In 2017, the number of official sexual harassment complaints filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and state agencies was approximately 9,600, a 41 percent drop from 16,000 in 1997. From a high of 24 complaints per 100,000 women employees, in 2017, the number hovered at around 9 per 100,000.

However, many experts say that these statistics are less likely to reflect an equivalent decline in workplace sexual harassment. Instead, they say, 95 percent of companies now have private, in-house processes to deal with such complaints. Another 82 percent have a protocol for handling investigations into sexual harassment. This means that most investigations and complaints today are not reflected in public statistics. However, surveys also show that up to 75 percent of instances of sexual harassment are never reported at all.