TL/DR – If your boss tries to kiss you, hug or have sex with you, it is against the law and likely a lawsuit. Call us at 312-346-5320 for help anywhere in Illinois. No fee unless you win the case.
When you go to work, it is to make money and hopefully progress in life. Almost everyone I have ever met just wants to do a good job and be rewarded for working hard.
What people do not want is for some creep to make them feel uncomfortable. And they certainly do not want to feel like their job security depends on giving that creep what they want.
If you are being sexually harassed, it can come in a variety of forms. This includes:
- Lewd comments
- Unwanted touching
- Being asked for hugs
- Unwanted kissing
- Being coerced into sexual activity
- Forcible assault
None of this should happen to you. If it does, the first thing you should do, after getting to a safe spot, is report the bad behavior to your employer. In order to have a lawsuit against your employer, they generally have to be aware of the bad behavior and given a chance to correct it.
Generally speaking, you can not sue an employer in Illinois for something a co-worker does if the employer is not aware of it and given a chance to correct the problem. Correction can mean firing that person, suspending them or taking other steps to make sure it does not happen again.
If the employer does not correct the problem or prevent it from happening again, that is when you likely have a lawsuit. Of course, sometimes it is the owner or someone else in charge who is doing the bad deed so there is nobody to report to. Other times the employer is already aware that an employee is doing bad things. In those cases, you can usually sue right away.
In a recent case, an Oak Brook police officer did some pretty gross things. This includes allegedly:
- Sending love notes and demanding to receive love notes back
- Repeatedly touching genitalia and other body parts over the clothes
- Stopping someone from leaving his office
- Making comments about the personal lives of women in the office and their sexual activity
- Taking a woman on extended coffee runs and parking the car and groping her
- Stating that promotions were dependent on having sex with him
- Retaliating when he learned of complaints
- Unholstering his gun in an attempt to intimidate
It got worse as apparently another male co-worker joined in and when the problems were reported, nothing was done about it. The case recently settled for $2 million. That is a very large number, but almost does not feel large enough. This type of behavior is simply gross.
What the best Illinois employment lawyers look for in assessing these cases, aside from the notification requirements, is does the case meet the legal standard. That standard includes:
Is the behavior so severe or pervasive as to alter the conditions of employment. In other words, would a reasonable outside person look at this and see that the behavior was wrong and it affected you. Sometimes that is a one time offense and other times it is minor things that are going on all of the time.
Most people would think that your boss saying, “I like your sweater, it looks nice” is not a big deal. But if they said that and added something like, “It would look nicer off of you” that it was inappropriate behavior. That happening once is one time too many, but not in of itself a lawsuit. That happening repeatedly over a period of time and the employer saying something like, “Oh, you know he is kidding, he jokes with everyone” would likely make it a case.
Every case is different. What we promise is that we will listen to you in confidence, give you an honest legal opinion, and if appropriate, refer you to a law firm that has a track record of winning these cases. We love holding bad people accountable. There is never a fee unless the case is successful.
If you would like a free case review with an experienced attorney, call us any time at 312-346-5320. We cover all of Illinois.
