Harassment by a Non-Employee

A recent court ruling in Pennsylvania found that employers may be liable for employee claims of harassment or a hostile work environment by non-employees.

If an employer had knowledge of, or “should have known” about the harassment by a non-employee and failed to address it, “both the company and individual managers may be liable”.

In the case of Hewitt v. BS Transportation, JD Supra explains that:

“Hewitt’s allegations that his manager failed to investigate his complaint of sexual harassment by the third-party employee or notify third-party management of his continued complaints, at this stage of the litigation, was sufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss…

The court found that the BS Transportation manager’s failure to notify the third-party’s management of Hewitt’s continued complaints allowed the court to make a reasonable inference that the manager failed to take prompt remedial action against the discrimination”.

Employers should review current harassment policies to ensure information on non-employees is addressed.

For more information, please click here.

The information included in this blog post originally appeared in an article from JD Supra on February 11, 2019, written by Brett Anders and Carlyle Edwards-Balfour.