(A) Purpose.
(1) To advise employees that sexual harassment is a violation of law;
(2) To clearly state that employees or employee applicants should not be subjected to unwelcome sexual conduct, on or off the job, regardless of whether such action results from conduct of co-employees, supervisory staff, department heads, the public or others; and
(3) To provide for disciplinary action in the event this policy is not followed.
(B) Policy.
(1) SEXUAL HARASSMENT is defined as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:
(a) Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment;
(b) Submission to or rejection of any such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions; or
(c) Such conduct has the result of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating or offensive work environment.
(2) Examples of specific conduct include, but are not limited to:
(a) Visual displays of sexually explicit or suggestive materials;
(b) Sexually explicit or suggestive comments or jokes;
(c) Sexually explicit or suggestive gestures;
(d) Sexually explicit or suggestive email;
(e) Using the internet to view sexually explicit or suggestive material; and
(f) Touching co-workers in sexually suggestive or explicit manners.
(3) The activities described above are prohibited on the part of all employees and elected county officials. It is not necessary that there be a supervisory relationship between the involved persons for the activity to be in violation of county policies.
(4) Any employee or employee applicant who feels that he or she has been subjected to any prohibited activity described above, should report the incident immediately to his or her immediate supervisor or the County Judge. If the immediate supervisor is involved in the activity, the violation should be reported immediately to the County Judge. In the event the County Judge is the subject of the problem, the employees should notify the County Attorney. All resulting investigations shall be kept confidential to the extent possible.
(5) Any employee violating this policy will be subjected immediately to disciplinary action ranging from a written warning to discharge, depending upon the nature and severity of the violation in this case.
(6) In addition, capricious and unfounded charges of sexual harassment by an employee may be cause for disciplinary action. Refusal by a supervisor to act in legitimate cases of harassment may be cause for disciplinary action.
(Ord. 21.230-1, passed 7-8-2021)