If you have been the victim of sexual harassment in the workplace, your employer must act to protect you. It is the responsibility of your employer to ensure you have a safe and welcoming workplace. Sometimes the sexual harassment and mistreatment doesn’t come from coworkers or supervisors. Instead, the harassment comes from customers or clients.
When a customer or client sexually harasses an employee, the employer should be made aware of the situation. The employer should act to ensure that the harassment and inappropriate behavior is stopped. If your employer has been made aware of the problem, and they fail to address it, then you can take legal action against your employer.
Examples of Sexual Harassment Made By Customers
Sexual harassment can come in many forms. Often, sexual harassment is in the form of comments and inappropriate remarks. This could vary from unwanted sexual advances to explicit remarks that are offensive and/or embarrassing.
Sometimes touching may be involved. As an example, if you are a waitress and a customer keeps hitting you on the rear-end, or if a customer rubs against you and goes out of his or her way to walk past you so they can touch you, that can also be sexual harassment.
Gestures, making sounds or noises, and cat calling are also some of the many kinds of sexual harassment. As an example, if you are a man who is working as a bartender and the women customers start making inappropriate gestures, such as pulling down clothing and revealing body parts, making hand gestures, or calling you like a pet, then they have stepped over that line and you are being sexually harassed.
If a customer is harassing you, it is your employer’s duty or responsibility to make sure that the behavior stops even if that means assigning another employee to deal with that difficult customer or by refusing service to that customer because of their actions and treatment of the employees. Your employer shouldn’t let anyone – even customers – mistreat employees.
Employers should have policies in place that establishes what happens should an employee be facing such behavior and treatment. Those policies should be followed to make sure the behavior is stopped, and that the employee doesn’t feel uncomfortable or mistreated. These procedures should also detail how the employee responds to the customer and notifies the employer of the behavior and what happened.
What to Do If a Customer Is Sexually Harassing You
If you are being sexually harassed by a customer, you should report it to your supervisor. You should keep proof of the notification being made, and you should document how your employer responded to you.
As an example, a manager may say it will be addressed and you may see them speak with the customers, or the manager may say if it happens again, I will take care of it. If the manager or supervisor ignores it and laughs it off, that should also be reported.
Maintain thorough documentation and evidence for your claim. That way, if the problem is not properly and promptly addressed, you will have a foundation to pursue a claim against your workplace. There are many different kinds of supporting evidence and documentation that you can gather for your claim because of your employer failing to address sexual harassment from customers.
You should talk with coworkers and fellow employees to get statements regarding their similar experiences or for witness statements regarding what they saw pertaining to your specific situation. Sometimes incidents could be caught by security cameras. If that is the case, security camera footage could be subpoenaed and used as evidence to support your claim and to show that you were a victim of sexual harassment from customers.
You may be able to determine there were other customers who were witnesses to the behavior and actions. You should get the names of these witnesses and their contact details.
You will want to get written statements from them regarding what happened, how it happened and when it happened. The more supporting evidence and documentation that you can gather, the more likely you are to have a successful claim.
There is a statute of limitations, which gives you a limited time to pursue a claim after you have suffered sexual harassment in the workplace. If you wait too long, you cannot recover compensation for your damages. You should file your claim in a timely fashion and provide the supporting evidence and documentation that you need to make sure your claim gets underway properly and that you show you were a victim of this unacceptable behavior.
Speak With an Attorney
Proving that you were the victim of sexual harassment from customers and that your employer was aware of the situation can be difficult to prove. You will need all the supporting evidence and documentation that you can gather.
An employment law attorney who handles sexual harassment cases will work to help you build your claim and to show what happened and how your employer either responded or failed to respond, and will work diligently to ensure that you are treated fairly throughout the claims process.
When you speak with an employment law attorney, be sure to ask about the payment process and when and how they are paid. Some employment law attorneys work on a contingency basis, and if that is the case, then your employment law attorney will not be paid until you win your claim against your employer and recover compensation for your damages. Complete the Free Case Evaluation Form on this page to share the details with an employment law attorney who handles such cases in your area.
