Recent lawsuits and reports indicate that teenagers on summer jobs often face sexual harassment, and most don't know what they can do to protect themselves.
According to a 2000 report by the U.S. Department of Labor, an estimated 4 million young people between ages 15 to 17 work during the summer, and nearly 3 million teens work during or after school. Since 2001, the first year the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission began tracking teen cases, the agency has filed more than 100 discrimination lawsuits on behalf of teens, most alleging sexual harassment.
These problems have come into sharper focus with the recent settlement of $ 180,000 that Steak 'n Shake agreed to pay Amanda Nichols. She was 17 when she quit work at the restaurant in Ballwin in 2002, after facing unwanted advances and touching by a male co-worker. Her managers ignored her complaints, and later made her clean floorboards with a toothbrush, she said.
A highly publicised case earlier involved the harassment faced by teenagers while employed at a Burger King in Peerless Park. Burger King agreed to a settlement of $400,000 in 2004. The restaurant manager repeatedly made vulgar comments, groped the young women and demanded sex. The teenagers, six of whom were high school students, complained to assistant managers and a district manager, but no one took action to stop the harassment, the EEOC said.
Now the EEOC, former victims, and relatives of victims are advising young people as to how they can protect themselves when faced with situations like these:
- Speak up.
- Know that the EEOC is there to help in such cases.
- Confide in family members.
- Parents are advised to know the names of managers, and have a copy of the employee handbook.
- Victims can write a short letter to the harasser, with specific complaints. This is likely to be taken seriously.
In addition to giving teenagers legal support, the EEOC has also forced companies to hold training on the issue. The consent decree in the Burger King case, for example, said franchise owners must train managers about sexual harassment, distribute a new sexual harassment policy to all workers and prominently display an 800 number that workers can use to report harassment.
See "Sexual Harassment: What Teens Should Know", a book by Carol Rust Nash.
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