Workplace harassment — South Carolina

No issue has more occupied the employment field in recent years than the issue of sexual harassment. However, under the EEOC guidelines, harassment is illegal on the basis of other protected classes, such as:

• race

• color

• national origin

• religion

• age

• pregnancy

• gender identity

• sexual orientation

• disability.

Hostile environment harassment

Hostile environment harassment was first recognized in the context of race by lower courts and in the context of sexual harassment by the U.S. Supreme Court, but it now also includes harassment on any basis previously stated. This form of harassment usually consists of a work environment that is permeated with epithets, derogatory remarks, jokes and implied threats of physical harm.

Insofar as sexual harassment is concerned, the kinds of conduct that create a hostile working environment include the following:

• Any unwelcome touching, patting, pinching, caressing, brushing against an employee’s body or other sexually suggestive physical contact by managers, supervisors, co-employees or even third parties who happen to be in the workplace (such as customers, service personnel and others).
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