Research On Employer Liability For Workplace Sexual Harassmen

Sexual harassment in the workplace is repetitive and harmful.The promulgation of the Civil Code for the first time responded to sexual harassment at the level of civil legislation,with Article 1010 stipulating the obligation of units to prevent and control sexual harassment,which to some extent improved the problem of single relief channels for victims of such cases in the past.However,this provision is highly general and does not provide further provisions on the civil liability of units for breach of obligations.For specific scenarios of workplace sexual harassment,there is no clear explanation of how the employer’s responsibility of the perpetrator of sexual harassment is established and what kind of responsibility is assumed,which poses certain difficulties in determining the employer’s responsibility in such cases in judicial practice.Based on the protection of the rights and interests of victims of sexual harassment,this article sorts out typical cases involving workplace sexual harassment in judicial practice,analyzes and summarizes the main characteristics and problems of different trial ideas and judgment results in handling such cases by courts,mainly including: unclear standards for determining workplace sexual harassment behavior,unclear nature and attribution principles of employer responsibility,and unclear content of employer responsibility to be borne.Based on these major issues,the following viewpoints are proposed: firstly,in the identification of workplace sexual harassment behavior,drawing on internationally accepted classification standards and combining with China’s judicial practice,workplace sexual harassment is divided into exchange type sexual harassment and hostile environment type sexual harassment;Secondly,in terms of establishing employer responsibility,it is clear that the nature of employer responsibility is one’s own responsibility.When determining the elements of liability,exchange based sexual harassment is subject to no fault liability,while hostile environmental sexual harassment is subject to presumption of fault liability;Finally,the content of employer responsibility should include three methods: cessation of infringement,apology,and compensation for losses.Suggestions should be made to unify the basic concept and recognition standards of workplace sexual harassment,as well as to clarify the basic content of employer responsibility for workplace sexual harassment.In order to provide some reference for the improvement of relevant legal systems in China and provide more comprehensive legal protection for victims of workplace sexual harassment.