Labor & Employment Law

Text Messages Increasingly Used as Evidence in Sexual Harassment Claims

Textual Harassment?  I recently reviewed a friend's cell phone bill. Her 14 year old son had sent 2500 text messages that month. Seems now that such frequency is not limited to 14 year olds. Your employees are texting and they're not being very nice. It used to be that email was considered the smoking gun of workplace investigations. If that's so, then text messages are now the exploding cannon!

According to a recent article in the National Law Journal (subscription required), 'Perhaps the biggest culprits...are male bosses who are sending scandalous text messages to female employees, asking them out on dates or promising promotions in exchange for sexual favors. These texts are explosive evidence in lawsuits, and pretty tough to dispute.'

The article further cites a recent case where two collegiate athletes received a large settlement from a university after alleging that they were sexually harassed by their coach. He had apparently sent text messages which were useful in helping their claims.

As we've said here before, social media and technology policies are a must for every organization!

Full post as published by Strategic HR Lawyer on July 15, 2009 (boomark / email).