As the #metoo movement continues to ripple through our society, public and private companies are scrambling to update their sexual harassment policies.
Our Lawmakers didn’t want to be left out of the we-hear-you lovefest and, this February, passed what many observers consider a wide-ranging revision of the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 Reform Act. The bill got rid of mandatory pre-suit mediation and counseling (yes, you read that right, there was a counseling requirement), made legislators personally financially liable for harassment settlements and, perhaps most impressively, provided the victim with legal counsel, something sorely needed if you are a low-paid employee or intern going up against a powerful lawmaker.
Enter the Senate, whose members appear to have thought this whole levelling-the-playing-field business went a bit too far. Last month the Senate passed its own watered-down Bill without many of the House’s most encouraging ideas. For all you nerds, here is the full text. According to a letter from the ACLU (and others) to Senate leadership, the Bill’s main issues are: curtailing the lawmakers’ financial responsibility by adding procedural hurdles and limiting the type of damages they would personally pay; increasing the difficulty of proving claims by using the legal “severe and pervasive” standard; requiring the victims to ‘opt out’ of mediation; reducing transparency by shielding the accusers from public disclosure; and, again perhaps most importantly, limiting the role of the victim’s assigned advisor.
Sidebar: as the letter points out, the Senate Bill also uses the term “unwelcome harassment,” rather than just harassment. The Bill author really should come forward and explain the difference between harassment and “unwelcome harassment” to me. I would really get a kick out of that chat.
Anyway, we will have to wait and see what the reconciliation process (aka the sausage factory) comes up with. Stay tuned.