03/23/2018

Court Says Boss’s Overheard Sex Talk Not Harassment

Only if it’s a one-time thing and not directed at the person who overheard it

Is sexually suggestive talk among a supervisor and other male workers about some of their female colleagues illegal sexual harassment when it’s overheard by one of the women? Not if it’s a one-time thing and the talk wasn’t especially ugly or directed at the woman who overheard it, a federal judge in Wisconsin ruled.

The March 20 decision by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin adds to the debate about whether and when a lone instance of alleged harassment may be actionable under federal law. The ruling also reaffirms that a single incident of verbal workplace harassment that doesn’t involve a sexual solicitation or actual or threatened violence typically isn’t enough--at least in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has never held that comments of the type reported by former Dairyland Power Cooperative employee Jacqueline Lee, and the context in which they were made and heard, can amount to unlawful sexual harassment under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Judge William M. Conley said. The Seventh Circuit is the federal appeals court that interprets and sets federal anti-discrimination law for lower federal courts in those three states.

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