Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Groping of mall Santa raises potential sexual harassment issues


The story of the Connecticut woman arrested for inappropriately groping a mall Santa is making the rounds this morning. (Woman accused of groping mall Santa). Harassment is not confined to employees. Just as companies have a responsibility to investigate and remedy harassment of employees by other employees, companies have a similar responsibility when the alleged harasser is a non-employee, such as a customer, a vendor, or a delivery person. For a thorough discussion of these issues, I recommend taking a look at Harassment by Nonemployees: How Should Employers Respond?, from HR Magazine.