Is supervisory training on sexual harassment sufficient?
No. Clearly, under the Supreme Court’s decisions, there is an underscoring of the need for preventive action. The Court has assumed that an employer has considerable ability to control its supervisors, especially regarding tangible economic actions. With a reaffirmation that strict liability will apply for such events, the employer (in self defense) needs to educate its supervisors and build in a review process in order to avoid potentially improper economic actions. Regarding non-tangible employment actions, the employer’s defense will depend in part on reasonable preventive measures. Clearly, training is an important preventive step. To the extent that the reasoning of these decisions applies to discrimination cases in general, then the rationale for broader training is obvious. In 1996, Littler published a generic eight hour curriculum for front line managers covering employment law. A copy of this curriculum and a reprint of a recent article on the “Emerging Law of Training” are av
