Human Resource Blog

Missouri Hostile Work Environment

Can a supervisor be legitimately biased against an employee who has made repeated complaints to the HR department in

Missouri? And, does an employer have the right to ignore an employee’s charges of a hostile work environment?

Federal, not state law addresses the first question. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits retaliation against a worker who makes a good faith discrimination complaint.

Examples of illegal retaliation by a boss or company are denying a worker a promotion, disciplining the worker, termination or any other actions against him or her.

In addition to Title VII protection, several federal Whistleblower Acts exist that prohibit retaliation. The laws protect employees who report workplaces that are unsafe, and/or violations of laws such as minimum wage, overtime, and environment protection.

“Good faith” means that the worker’s intentions are good. He or she isn’t attempting to defraud the company or purposely make unfounded claims.

Complaints, like “My boss is an idiot“, or “She should do this, not that”, do not come under any law, state or federal. Employees, therefore, are not protected from bias from the boss. Many Human Resources department report the complaints, but maintain secrecy regarding the source.

As to the second question about an employee’s hostile work environment charges, ignoring them isn’t a good idea and can be illegal.

Hostile work environment is a specific kind of discrimination, involving subjecting employees to ridicule or bias based on race, sex, color, age, disability, religion or country of origin. Verbal abuse, offensive jokes, explicit pictures are examples of creating a hostile work environment.

When a company receives a charge of hostile work environment, it usually conducts its own investigation to validate the complaint. If the complaint has merit, then the company must take action to eliminate the hostile work environment. The worker should be notified of the results either way.

If the company doesn’t handle the complaint, the next step would be to file with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). The EEOC will conduct its own investigation. If it finds the worker’s complain to be valid, the EEOC will then file a suit against the company for that worker.  JH