{"id":361,"date":"2023-03-20T02:33:52","date_gmt":"2023-03-20T02:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hrnetsourcedemo.com\/blog\/?p=361"},"modified":"2023-03-20T02:33:54","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T02:33:54","slug":"recent-court-ruling-means-hr-personally-liable-for-toxic-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrnetsourcedemo.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/20\/recent-court-ruling-means-hr-personally-liable-for-toxic-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Court Ruling Means HR Personally Liable for Toxic Workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As reported in HR Executive, \u201ca Delaware judge issued a landmark decision in a case involving fast-food giant McDonald\u2019s, ruling that shareholders can sue not only the corporation but also its former Chief People Officer (CPO)\u201d (1) for allowing a culture of sexual harassment to flourish. The judge agreed that \u201cMr. Fairhurst [CPO] failed to appropriately respond to systemic issues of sexual misconduct at the company.\u201d (2)<\/p>\n\n\n<a class=\"wp-block-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/hrnetsourcedemo.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/20\/recent-court-ruling-means-hr-personally-liable-for-toxic-workplace\/\" target=\"_self\">Read more<\/a>\n\n\n<p>According to Financial Times, \u201cShareholders alleged Fairhurst breached his fiduciary duties by allowing a corporate culture to develop that condoned sexual harassment and misconduct. Recruiters were encouraged to hire \u201cyoung, pretty females\u201d to work at its headquarters, they said, where he and Easterbrook [CEO] hosted weekly happy hours and developed reputations for flirting with female employees. Executives \u201croutinely ma[de] female employees feel uncomfortable\u201d, the investors alleged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After several colleagues allegedly reported Fairhurst for pulling a female employee on to his lap at a party for human resources staff, shareholders claimed Easterbrook recommended the company deviate from its zero-tolerance policy for acts of sexual harassment by cutting Fairhurst\u2019s bonus but allowing the HR boss to keep his job.\u201d (3)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This ruling makes HR\u2019s role in maintaining a harassment-free workplace increasingly more crucial.&nbsp; Here are some actions that HR can take to reduce the risk of sexual harassment claims:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Review and update, if necessary, the company dating policy.&nbsp; Prohibit dating between bosses and people who work for them.&nbsp; Require disclosure \u201cwhen a dating situation could pose that type of conflict.\u201d (1) Provide \u201cguidance on how to handle allegations of favoritism and conflicts of interest\u201d (1)<\/li><li>Eliminate company-sponsored happy hours or drinking parties. Company sponsored family picnics are okay.<\/li><li>Insist on professional behavior of employees, especially managers and directors.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>(1) <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/\u201dhttps:\/\/hrexecutive.com\/why-the-mcdonalds-ruling-means-its-time-to-revisit-your-sexual-harassment-policies\/\u201d\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/hrexecutive.com\/why-the-mcdonalds-ruling-means-its-time-to-revisit-your-sexual-harassment-policies\/<\/a><br>(2)\u00a0\u00a0 <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/mcdonalds-ruling-shifts-oversight-liability-focus-to-corporate-officers-11675381792\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/mcdonalds-ruling-shifts-oversight-liability-focus-to-corporate-officers-11675381792<\/a><br>(3)\u00a0\u00a0 <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/d4528dfd-dc8e-4e83-ae0b-04c56d9e28f9\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/d4528dfd-dc8e-4e83-ae0b-04c56d9e28f9<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As reported in HR Executive, \u201ca Delaware judge issued a landmark decision [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[67],"tags":[8,19],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrnetsourcedemo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrnetsourcedemo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrnetsourcedemo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrnetsourcedemo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrnetsourcedemo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hrnetsourcedemo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363,"href":"https:\/\/hrnetsourcedemo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions\/363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrnetsourcedemo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrnetsourcedemo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrnetsourcedemo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}