uid pro quo<\/em>,\u201d described situations in which the condition of employment is dependent on sexual favors.<\/p>\nThe second is hostile environment, defined as work environments where sexual speech or conduct by the perpetrator(s) is so severe and pervasive that it creates an intimidating or demeaning environment, or negatively affects a person\u2019s job performance. Unlike quid pro quo harassment, this type of harassment can be perpetrated by anyone in the workplace, whether it be a supervisor, subordinate, vendor, customer or contractor.<\/p>\n
The key to both forms of sexual harassment is that the conduct is unwelcome, and the victim lets the harasser know as much.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that sexual harassment in both its forms is actionable under Title VII. And the Supreme Court also held that to constitute sexual harassment, the alleged misconduct must be so grievous as to adversely affect the employee\u2019s working ability and to render the employee\u2019s work environment intolerable.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, employers are held legally responsible for the harassment if they knew, or should have known, about the conduct, but failed to take prompt remedial action.<\/p>\n
Did Harvey Weinstein and The Weinstein Co. know what the law demanded? I have no doubt that they did; the company had an HR department and no doubt it had guidelines aimed at preventing sexual harassment. But did that stop Weinstein? Clearly, it did not.<\/p>\n
According to recent investigative reports in both The New York Times and The New Yorker, Weinstein used his powerful position to sexually harass the youngest, most vulnerable female employees as well as actresses who hoped to be cast in one of his movies. His power was so absolute that female staffers even went along with his games, acting as \u201choneypots\u201d by making young women feel safe in Weinstein\u2019s presence, then ditching the target so their boss could indulge himself.<\/p>\n
As for the company, it was so cognizant of Weinstein\u2019s behavior that his employment contract contained a clause saying that if he violated the company\u2019s code of conduct \u2014 i.e. if he was accused of sexual harassment \u2014 he simply needed to pay the settlement out of his pocket instead of the company\u2019s.<\/p>\n
It is inexplicable that the board would agree to this provision \u2014 which is why The Weinstein Company will almost certainly be forced to fold under the weight of the Title VII lawsuits it will undoubtedly face.<\/p>\n
But Weinstein\u2019s own behavior, reprehensible though it is, is not so hard to understand. He was, and is, a sex addict, a group that makes up about six to eight percent of Americans, according to The National Council on Sexual Addiction Compulsivity, or between 18 and 24 million people.<\/p>\n
There are those who believe sex addiction isn\u2019t a real disease, but it is.\u00a0 It affects women as well as men and is characterized by a persistent and escalating pattern of sexual behaviors like Weinstein\u2019s, acted out despite increasingly negative consequences. Its symptoms include an inability to stop, resist, or control the impulses to engage in sexual acts; a need to engage in sexual behaviors more often and over longer periods of time; and constantly obsessing over sex even when not engaged in it. Like any other serious addiction, the addict is unable to control his behavior.\u00a0 It is a destructive force, not only to himself but also to those around him.<\/p>\n
Which is why, despite Title VII, despite his company\u2019s policies, and despite the recklessness of his acts, he kept sexually abusing woman after woman. And that\u2019s also why, in dealing with people like Weinstein, we simply can\u2019t expect the law to hold this behavior in check.<\/p>\n
We must build a national awareness of sexual addiction, so that victims of sex addicts like Weinstein \u2014 not to mention fellow employees and friends \u2014 will recognize what they\u2019re dealing with. Many types of sexual addiction result in violating the law, such as obscene phone calls, exhibitionism, voyeurism, rape, incest and child molestation, but the addicts themselves will not be stopped by legislation alone. Sex addicts must be identified early on, and treated with therapy and other means, just as we do with other forms of addiction.\u00a0 Harvey Weinstein\u2019s decades-long behavior shows what happens when those around him don\u2019t see him for what he is: an addict.<\/p>\n
* See Marie E. Kaiser [Napoli], Anthony J. LaPorta, \u201cSexual Harassment of Women in the Workplace: He Said, She Said\u201d Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development Vol 7: Iss 2, Article 8.<\/p>\n
This article first appeared on Lawdragon News<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jako prawnik, kt\u00f3ry zosta\u0142 opublikowany na temat molestowania seksualnego w tytule VII*, pr\u00f3bowa\u0142 i rozstrzyga\u0142 wiele spraw dotycz\u0105cych molestowania seksualnego i pom\u00f3g\u0142 opracowa\u0107 standard prawny na poziomie apelacyjnym w\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[774],"tags":[811,859],"class_list":["post-7319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-napoli-shkolnik-news","tag-workplace-discrimination","tag-marie-napoli"],"acf":[],"page_builder_type":"gutenberg","gutenberg_data":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17655,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7319\/revisions\/17655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}