Frank C. Morris Jr., Jonathan K. Hoerner, and Katherine Smith, attorneys in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, co-authored an article in the Wolters Kluwer Employee Relations Law Journal, titled “Second Circuit Decision in Sexual Harassment Case Shows Heightened Risk for Health Care Employers.”
Following is an excerpt:
Health care employers should be aware that a recent holding from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit may indicate that courts and juries are beginning to weigh in on the dramatic sexual harassment developments, such as the #MeToo and #Time’sUp movements addressing workplace harassment, by holding employers to heightened standards, including as to “last chance” agreements. In MacCluskey v. University of Connecticut Health Center(“MacCluskey”), the Second Circuit upheld a jury verdict awarding plaintiff Mindy MacCluskey $125,000 in damages after finding that she was subject to a hostile work environment where she was repeatedly sexually harassed by a co-worker, dentist Michael Young, who was subject to a last-chance agreement from 10 years earlier. The bottom line in the MacCluskey holding is that it is not enough for employers to merely maintain a policy prohibiting sexual harassment, they must also take reasonable care to enforce the policy.
Related reading:
HEAL Act Now Advisory, “Second Circuit Decision in Sexual Harassment Case Shows Heightened Risk for Health Care Employers.”