Download MHR 6401Unit III Case StudyColumbia Southern University MHR and more Lecture notes Accounting in PDF only on Docsity! MHR 6401 Unit III Case Study Columbia Southern University MHR 6401 Employment Law Unit III Case Study The case of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Magneti Marelli of Tennesse, LLC, is centered around sexual harassment in the workplace. This case study will discuss the actions of Jamil Degraffenreid towards four female employees-Rebecca Crouch, Ariana Baker, Amanda Huckaba Campbell, and Christy Parson. There will be an analysis of the use of the complaint procedure and the employer’s response, a discussion of preventative steps that could have been used to prevent the harassment, and a summary of the costs to the employer stemming from the lawsuit and the underlying conduct. Sexual harassment in the workplace is often more about control or power than sex and the individuals performing these behaviors and actions need to be held accountable – every time. Conduct and Title VII Jamil Degraffenried was an assembly supervisor at Magento Marelli, LLC, an international exterior lighting manufacturer for the automotive industry (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2020). According to the case, Jamil had frequently “massaged” women’s shoulders, whispered in their ears, sang sexually explicit song lyrics towards specific female employees and he would also make comments about female employee’ appearance and would run his fingers through Ariana Baker’s hair (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2020). The environment became so toxic to work and reports to supervisors and HR were not changing anything. Analysis Sexual harassment in the workplace is something that most organizations say they have zero tolerance for, but it still occurs for many different reasons. 19% of adults have been sexually harassed at work and 75% of the victims who spoke out when they were harassed experienced retaliation at work (Creighton, 2018), despite organizations often having a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment. Magneti was no exception; their employee policy forbids sexual harassment and a copy of the policy was in the employee handbook given to each employee during new hire orientation, where each employee had to sign an acknowledgment of receiving the handbook (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2020). While there is no description of the complaint procedure provided, the case states that complaints were made to Degraffermried’s supervisor and HR. In this case, it does not appear that any complaint procedure would have been followed. The company had a zero-tolerance policy and complaints were made by many employees to both supervisors and human resources, the actions of Degraffenried did not change. It was not until Rebecca Crouch filed an EEOC charge over Degraffenried’s conduct that anything was done. Preventative Steps According to Regional Attorney Faye Williams of the EEOC's Memphis District Office, as cited by EEOC (2020), despite the passage of Title VII more than fifty years ago, there has been a record number of sexual harassment cases in recent years with 306 cases in Tennessee in 2019. 306 cases – in one state– in one year. Prevention is something that can help bring down the number of cases and there are preventative steps that Marelli could have used to prevent the harassment from occurring, such as having employees acknowledge the sexual harassment policy separate from the employee handbook, provide sexual harassment training, have a designated coordinator for employees to report EEOC violations to and to investigate the reports properly. Summary of Costs As it’s been discovered, Marelli did not take appropriate action on the complaints and under the two-year consent decree resolving the lawsuit, Marelli will pay $335,000 to Rebecca Crouch, Ariana Baker, Amanda Huckaba Campbell, and Christy Parson, modify its current sexual harassment policy to specify that employees may make written or verbal complaints and distribute the updated policy within 75 days (EEOC, 2020). Marelli also agreed to provide annual sexual harassment training, to prevent any future cases and to conduct employee exit interviews, to ensure termination was not due to negligence
