Sexual Harassment and Students
According to one survey, as many as one in three students report being sexually harassed at work. For students, part-time work or internships do expose them to a life full of opportunity. However, they can also expose them to the risk of sexual harassment.
Harassment involving student interns and part time workers is not exactly unheard of. In fact, a number of companies are coming under the scanner for their exploitation of student workers. Interns are often unpaid, and this means that they are very often financially exploited by employers. Apart from financial exploitation, a student may also be in danger of sexual harassment.
For many college students, being in a workplace is exciting, but also a very lonely time because they do not have friends at work. They also do not know that they have rights. For instance, if you are currently an intern, or in a part-time job, and are being harassed, there are steps that you can take to protect your rights. File a complaint with your employer if you are facing discrimination or harassment in the workplace. File a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Speak to a California employment lawyer about your options. Students must know that they have protections against retaliation for reporting the harassment.
Any company that accepts internships must have strong anti-sexual harassment policies in place to protect interns. All those policies must be contained in an internship manual that is distributed to all new interns at the time of the internship cycle.
Employers must also make sure that any harassment that is targeted towards interns is immediately punished. Letting harassment go just because the target is an intern could actually place a company at risk of a lawsuit. Many interns are now filing lawsuits based on such exploitation and harassment.
