Employee Doesn’t Complain About Harassment and Wins

The judge in the case of Sheri Minarsky v. Susquehanna County (PA) in the Third Circuit stated, “Thomas Yadlosky, the former Director of Susquehanna

County’s Department of Veterans Affairs made unwanted sexual advances toward his part-time secretary, Sheri Minarsky, for years. She never reported this conduct and explained in her deposition the reasons she did not do so. Although Yadlos ky was warned twice to stop his inappropriate behavior, it was to no avail. The County ultimately terminated Yadlosky when the persistent nature of his behavior toward Minarsky came to light.”

The County knew Yadlosky was inappropriate with other women and previously warned him about his behavior, but they never knew and therefore did not warn him about any behavior with Minarsky.

To make matters worse, Minarsky and Yadlosky worked in an isolated section of the building where very few people ventured. As such, the County placed a woman in an isolated area with a man who was known to exhibit inappropriate behavior.

It wasn’t until another supervisor overheard Minarsky confiding in a friend about the harassment that the County took action and fired Yadlosky.

Minarsky claimed that she did not mention the harassment because Yadlosky knew that her young daughter was ill and thus knew that she depended on her employment to pay medical bills. She states that she feared speaking up to him in any context, let alone to protest his harassment because he would react and sometimes become “nasty.”

In a hostile work environment case, even if the plaintiff establishes that her supervisor sexually harassed her, the company has an affirmative defense known as the Faragher/Ellerth defense, and it provides that the company must show that:

#1 It exercised reasonable care to prevent (i.e., through training, handbooks, policies, etc.) and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior, and

#2 The employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the company or to avoid harm otherwise.

In this case, the County argued that its Employee Handbook and quick response to Ms. Minarsky’s complaint satisfied step #1. It further contended that Ms. Minarsky waited too long to complain and therefore her delay was considered unreasonable, which filled step #2.

Based on step #1 and #2, the County asked for summary judgment against Minarsky, but the court declined and allowed the case to progress to a jury trial.

In allowing the case to go to trial, the Court (A) declined to accept that the County took reasonable care to protect Minarsky and other women and

(B) noted that a jury should decide whether Minarsky’s delay in not reporting the harassment over a 4-year period was unreasonable.

The Court went on to say, “…that a mere failure to report one’s harassment is not per se unreasonable.”

Finally, the Court referred to the #MeToo movement relative to the national news of women reporting abuse from years past and the psychology of why this occurs.

As such, the Court has now put into doubt a company’s chief legal defense in sexual harassment and hostile work environment cases.

This case is a “shot across the bow” for companies to ensure that a manager or an employee with any history of harassment is appropriately monitored and not placed into situations that may allow inappropriate behavior to flourish.

Additionally, many companies are now conducting anonymous surveys of employees relative to harassment, sexual harassment, and hostile work environments as a way to take affirmative actions and now as a result of this case, as a way to strengthen any Faragher/Ellerth defense.

Effective October 9, 2018, New York employers will be required to provide annual sexual harassment training to all employees.

YPTHRM offers cost effective training courses that are compliant with current NYC and NYS law and continues to revise those programs as city and state officials provide further details about the training requirements. To learn more about YPTHRM's Harassment Prevention Training Programs or other training programs give me a call at 888 396-6020 or visit our website at https://www.yourparttimehrmanager.com/products-and-solutions/.

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