27 - Do Employer Efforts Prevent Harassment or Just Prevent Liability?

Summary

An article in the National Law Journal praised Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America, a Japanese car company with a significant presence in the United States, for its remarkable recovery from a dark history of sexual harassment and other civil rights violations. It described Mitsubishi as a “corporate model for training employees about the illegality of harassment and discrimination and investigating complaints when they arise.”

What's interesting about Mitsubishi's recovery is that it gives us the chance to ask a forgotten question: Do employer's efforts to prevent harassment actually work, or do they just serve to insulate employers from liability?

MITSUBISHI'S RESPONSE TO THE SETTLEMENT

Just a few years ago, Mitsubishi settled a sexual harassment case with the EEOC, in which widespread and pervasive harassment within the company was alleged. In the settlement, Mitsubishi paid $34 million to the EEOC and paid several million more to private plaintiffs bringing similar complaints. Since then, the EEOC has settled other high-profile, big-money sexual harassment suits. Yet the settlement with Mitsubishi still stands out as a reminder to employers of the tremendous consequences of failing to control the workplace.

Driven partly by court orders and partly by economic fear, Mitsubishi did make a noteworthy effort to end the culture of harassment that had enveloped its plant in Normal, Illinois. The evidence in the lawsuit showed an environment in which harassment was as routine and commonplace as coffee breaks. More than 300 female employees joined the suit, complaining of groping, fondling, lewd jokes and behavior, and obscene graffiti plastered in work areas.

The company's post-lawsuit response began with the hiring of former secretary of labor Lynn Martin, for a multimillion-dollar consulting gig. Martin's job was to oversee a self-audit of the company's EEO practices and environment. The programs and policies that flowed from Martin's work centered on the adoption and implementation of a zero-tolerance policy. The policy was given teeth by the creation of an entirely separate department, the Opportunity Programs Department (OPD), whose sole function is to train employees about the policy and investigate complaints.

As part of its ongoing antiharassment program, Mitsubishi requires each employee to attend sexual harassment prevention training every two years. It also has stepped up investigations of complaints and the imposition of discipline on offenders.