home > publications & resources > associations now

To order reprints of any article in its original format, visit Scoopreprintsource.com

Be the first to rate this article: Please Sign in to rate this.

Q: Should an association be concerned about harassment of association employees by its members and volunteer leaders?

A: When the offensive conduct targets one of your staff, yes.

Harassment is the cause of many employment-practices claims. The Insurance Information Institute (www.iii.org) says that employment practices as a whole constitute the single-largest tort exposure experienced by businesses, and of all potential claims brought under an employment-practices liability policy or endorsement, sexual harassment is the largest. Racial harassment claims can also be significant. Jury Verdict Research reports that the mean award for discrimination cases between 1999 and 2005, including sexual and racial harassment, was $406,375.  

Sexual and racial harassment claims are not limited to your office, and potential wrongdoers are not limited to your employees.  An employee’s right to protection against discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin has been part of our national legal fabric since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. For these purposes, the term “employer” has been construed to include both the employer and the employer’s agents. One legal authority puts it this way: “An employer may be responsible for the hostile work environment of employees by nonemployees when the employer knows or should know of such actions and fails to take corrective action.” The main points for association executives are these:

1.  Members and volunteer leaders can be a part of your workplace environment. For purposes of sexual, racial, or other harassment lawsuits, they can be “the employer.”

2.  For many of your staff, the workplace extends beyond the four walls of your office.

This means that your staff should be free from harassment in the office and offsite, whether at the association’s holiday party, an office picnic, or at an out-of-town convention. You need to be concerned about a volunteer member who crosses the sexual harassment line with one of your staff. You have to be concerned about outright or even the appearance of racially motivated inequitable behavior toward staff by a committee chair. You have provided harassment training to your staff, but have you trained your board members and other volunteer leaders? They need to understand that a lapse in judgment could cost not just themselves but also the association.

What Should You Do? 

• Make sure you have adequate employment-practices liability insurance coverage. Prohibited discrimination and harassment is not covered by a conventional directors’ and officers’ policy alone. 
• Take all the preventive and remedial steps required or advised by your legal counsel and insurance company.
• Don’t stop at posting corporate policies throughout the workplace and placing them in employee handbooks. Proactively communicate your policy to all volunteer leaders and make it clear that you will enforce as necessary.
• Train your volunteer leaders that the association may deny indemnification if it concludes that the conduct complained of occurred outside the scope of the accused leader’s duties. Moreover, the protection of the Volunteer Protection Act of 1997 may also be unavailable for that or a similar reason.
• Teach employees what steps to take if they are the object of harassment or discrimination by a supervisor or volunteer. Make sure all responsible persons know where the company stands on discrimination and harassment.
• If you receive a complaint, investigate immediately and take such immediate steps as are suggested by the results of your investigation to prevent further harm. Document everything that occurs and the steps your company is taking to resolve the matter and prevent any recurrence.

In short, anticipate that the possibility of discriminatory harassment by a member or volunteer leader is real and plan accordingly. The exposure to your association from prohibited harassment by a member or volunteer leader is just as substantial as that by one of your staff.

Mark E. Truesdell is an attorney with Beving, Swanson & Forest PC, in Des Moines, Iowa. Email: mtruesdell@bevinglaw.com

More Articles From Associations Now, December 2007

  The Next Generation of Leadership

  Simple Branding Solutions

  Planning Predictable IT Budgets

  And the Winner Is …

  A Family Affair

  Influencing the Nominating Committee

  Auditing Your Influence

Top ^
To ASSOCIATIONS NOW
To ASAE & The Center home