Harassment

Harassment refers to a wide spectrum of offensive behavior. When the term is used in a legal sense it refers to behaviors that are found threatening or disturbing, and beyond those that are sanctioned by society. Sexual harassment refers to persistent and unwanted sexual advances, typically in the workplace, where the consequences of refusing are potentially very disadvantageous to the victim.


HISTORY

United States

In 1964, the United States Congress passed Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, , prohibiting discrimination at work on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin and sex. This later became the legal basis for early harassment law. The practice of developing workplace guidelines prohibiting harassment was pioneered in 1969, when the U.S. Department of Defense drafted a Human Goals Charter, establishing a policy of equal respect for both sexes. In Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986): the U.S. Supreme Court recognized harassment suits against employers for promoting a sexually hostile work environment. In 2006, U.S.A. President George W. Bush signed a law which prohibited the transmission of annoying messages over the Internet (aka spamming) without disclosing the sender's true identity.

Canada
In 1984, the Canadian Human Rights Act prohibited sexual harassment in workplaces under federal jurisdiction.

United Kingdom
In the UK there are a number of laws protecting people from harassment including the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, and the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.


CATEGORIES

Broad categories of harassment often recognized in law include:

• Legal harassment - Legal actions against an individual or a group, for example SLAPP suits
• Sexual harassment (with a much stricter definition in the workplace)
• Psychological harassment - repetitive unprovoked intrusions or interruptions
• Group psychological harassment
• Hate speech - comments proveably false or irrelevant which express or encourage hate towards a particular group

TYPES OF HARASSMENTS

There are a number of harassments that fall into this category.

• Bullying
  Harassment that can occur on the playground, school, in the workforce or any other place. Usually physical and psychological harassing behavior perpetrated against an individual, by one or more persons.
• Psychological harassment
  This is humiliating or abusive behavior that lowers a person’s self-esteem or causes them torment. This can take the form of verbal comments, actions or gestures. Falling into this category is workplace mobbing. Community Based Harassment - stalking by a group against an individual using repeated distractions that the individual is sensitized to, such as clicking an ink pen. See the following website: CATCH
• Racial harassment
  The targeting of an individual because of their race or ethnicity. The harassment's include words, deeds, and actions, that are specifically designed to make the target feel degraded due to their race of origin or ethnicity.
• Religious harassment
  Verbal, psychological or physical harassment's used against targets because they choose to practice a specific religion. Religious harassment can also include forced and involuntary conversions.
• Sexual harassment
  Harassment that can happen anywhere but is most common in the workplace, and schools. It involves unwanted and unwelcome, words, deeds, actions, gestures, symbols, or behaviors of a sexual nature that make the target feel uncomfortable. Gender and sexual orientation harassment fall into this family.
• Stalking
  The unauthorized following and surveillance of an individual, to the extent that the person's privacy is unacceptably intruded upon, and the victim fears for their safety.
• Mobbing
  Violence committed directly or indirectly by a loosely affiliated and organized group of individuals to punish or even execute a person for some alleged offense without a lawful trial. The 'offense' can range from a serious crime like murder or simple expression of ethnic, cultural, or religious attitudes. The issue of the victim's actual guilt or innocence is often irrelevant to the mob, since the mob relies on contentions that are unverifiable, unsubstantiated, or completely fabricated.
• Hazing
  To persecute, harass, or torture in a deliberate, calculated, planned, manner. Typically the targeted individual is a subordinate, for example, a fraternity pledge, a first-year military cadet, or somebody who is considered 'inferior' or an 'outsider'. Hazing is illegal in many instances.
• Police Harassment
  Unfair treatment conducted by law officials including but not limited to excessive force,profiling, threats, coercion, and racial, ethnic, religious, gender/sexual, age, or other forms of discrimination.

I worked at a bakery and deli for about 2 months, the first time my employer yelled at me was because I was unaware of a product sitting on the shelf in the back that needed to go out, because i was in the store fronting and checking if we needed any thing else to be put out. he had come down from his office, and taken me to the back where the product was, and then started yelling at me because they were not in the store, I felt very attacked and started to explain that i had not known they were there, and not known that they needed to be filled, he then continued to yell, stating I needed to do my job better, and had asked me in a very condisending tone how long i've worked there (which at the time was only about 3 weeks, 1 1/2 of which were training and that night was only the 3rd or 4th time i was closing alone). The next day I had apologized to him for acting out, he didn't apologize back for the way he talked to me, but he took my apology.

the next time he yelled, I was finishing a break in the deli part of the store, and the assistant manager was about to go on her break. She had finished bagging baggettes for a commercial order and had moved a table with the remaining baggettes next to the deli so i could finish bagging them for the store. The owner had then come down again, and started yelling at me, telling me i was not supposed to do them in that spot, and had asked me once again in a very condesending tone how many times i've done that job, ( I've only done that once or twice I told him, and every time I did it was in that spot) he then continued yelling at me, stating i was a liar, and that he's seen me do it before, in the other spot. I gave up the argument and moved the table back to where it had been before, and contined to bag the remaining baggettes, I was in tears and extreamely frustrated, he had then come back, and started to yell at me again, telling me I was doing it wrong, and needed to use a spatula to pull them apart, he had then asked me where the spatula was, and I told him that i had no idea ( I had done it once or twice using the spatula, but I was trained by the assistant manager that I didn't nessisarily have to use it if they come off the tray easily) He had then continued to yell and shout at me, and told me I have a bad attitude, and that I was a suppervisor and had to set an example for the other employees. I had told him I have never been treated like that ever at a place of employment, I then told him I was done, and i quit, i then put my uniform on the table and went into the girls change room, he had then came in and thrown my uniform at me and said i had signed a contract and needed to wash them, and then he had told me to quit crying and then in a very rude tone asked if i wanted to sit down and think about what i was doing, I said no, and I left.

I am now worried that he might withhold my check from me. and am also wondering if theyre is any kind of legal action i can take, He yells at all of his employees like that, and they are all 20 year old women, and he is about a 50 year old man.