The City hereby adopts and subscribes to the following sexual harassment workplace policy:
(a) It is the policy of the City to provide and maintain a workplace free of employee discrimination and sexual harassment of any kind or type, and it is the position of the City that employee discrimination and sexual harassment of any kind or type will not be condoned or tolerated and it is prohibited. It is the policy of the City that every employee be free from any form of employee discrimination or any form of sexual harassment by another employee of the City. It is the policy of the City that all complaints will be taken seriously and investigated promptly. It is the policy of the City that all employees are to treat each other professionally and respectfully.
(b) Persons violating this sexual harassment workplace policy or failing to notify the City of any sexual harassment may be subject to appropriate disciplinary or personnel action, up to and including termination.
(c) Sexual harassment includes, but is not limited to: sexual advances; requests for sexual favors; uninvited requests for social "dates"; lewd or suggestive language and/or language containing sexual innuendos; physical interference or restriction of movement and/or unwanted physical contact; sexually suggestive symbolic gestures and/or signs; leering and/or bringing to the workplace and/or displaying in the workplace sexually suggestive, provocative or obscene material, including, but not limited to, photographs, cartoons, diagrams and videotapes.
Behavior on the part of persons in authority (e.g. supervisors) which derogates, intimidates, abuses, or coerces other employees of the City on the basis of gender or sexual preference is prohibited.
More serious forms of sexual harassment include physical and verbal acts of intimidation (including acts of vandalism) and sexual advances accompanied by the promise of reward and/or threats of reprisal and punishment and sexual assault; unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal, pictorial, or physical conduct of a sexual nature which has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with that person's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.
(d) It will be the position of the City of Mentor-on-the-Lake to take affirmative action to prevent such unwanted conduct from occurring and to deal with all such reported incidents in a fair, impartial and speedy manner. All complaints or incidents will be investigated on a case-by-case basis.
(e) Any employee of the City who is subjected to any conduct that the employee views as sexual harassment shall report the incident or incidents to the department supervisor, unless his or her department supervisor is the harassing party. In that case, the incident shall then be reported to the Administrative Director of the City and the City Law Director so that the matter may be promptly investigated. All employees of the City are required to immediately report any incidents of sexual harassment. Any reports of sexual harassment may be initially submitted either orally or in writing, and any oral statements shall then be followed up with a written statement.
(f) The City will promptly investigate any allegation in a fair and expeditious manner. The investigation will be conducted in such a way as to maintain confidentiality to the extent practical under the circumstances. Any such investigation will include a private interview with the person filing the complaint and with witnesses. The City shall also interview the person alleged to have committed the sexual harassment. At the conclusion of the investigation, the City, to the extent appropriate, will inform the person filing the complaint and the person alleged to have committed the conduct of the results of that investigation.
(g) Each department head shall conduct an in-service seminar on sexual harassment within forty-five days of the date of the passage of this section. Thereafter, each department head shall provide an annual in-service seminar on sexual harassment. Each such in-service seminar shall include the following information:
(1) Identifying and describing forms of sexual harassment and examples of such conduct;
(2) An outline of the City's grievance procedure, an explanation of how to use it, and a discussion of the importance of using the grievance procedure;
(3) A discussion of.the penalties for violating the policy; and
(4) A discussion that emphasizes the need for a workplace free of harassment, offensive conduct, intimidation, or other forms of discrimination.
(h) The City shall ensure that all supervisors in the City are adequately trained to enforce this sexual harassment policy.
(i) The Administrative Director will provide each employee with a written statement informing him or her of this policy of the City and his or her responsibilities under this policy..
(j) Copies of this section shall be provided to each employee so that each employee will have full and complete access to this policy and an opportunity to review the same.
(Ord.99-0-05. Passed 4-13-99.)