Companies should disclose the number of sexual harassment claims settled — and the amounts paid
OPINION | Ending sexual harassment at public companies
Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s opinions staff.
One best idea: Sexual harassment takes place everywhere. This is one in a series of posts about how various industries can change to stop sexual harassment. What’s your one best idea? Share it here.
Debra S. Katz‘s idea: Require corporate reporting at public companies
Katz is a civil rights lawyer who specializes in the representation of employees in sexual harassment matters.
Since October, when three decades of egregious sexual harassment by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein came to light, women have come forward in unprecedented numbers to expose sexual harassment and assault in their workplaces. Their graphic accounts have served as a powerful reminder that sexual harassment is not about sex. It is about abuse of power that doesn’t end when the harassment does.
Instead, it continues when companies give male executives and star performers a pass for harassing women, and protect them by paying out confidential settlements, gagging the accusers and “managing” them out of their jobs. In publicly traded companies, at least, there’s a good model for checking this behavior: Congress should apply the same standards for sexual misconduct that it does to violations of securities law.
After the Enron and WorldCom frauds devastated the retirement funds of numerous investors, Congress responded with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which has helped restore investor confidence through better corporate governance, stricter reporting and enhanced whistleblower protections for employees who report fraud. The law also requires corporate officers to sign certifications, under penalty of perjury, attesting to their companies’ compliance with securities laws and maintenance of internal controls that work to identify violations.
Existing federal laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Congressional Accountability Act, must be amended to require companies to file similar disclosures of the number of sexual harassment claims settled, the amounts paid and the corrective actions taken in response. Legislators, too, should have to attest annually to their offices’ compliance with sexual harassment laws and to disclose sexual harassment settlements (while shielding the identities of the victims). Changes like these could have uncovered the sexual harassment scandals at 21st Century Fox, which employed Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly, or the congressional practice of paying out confidential settlements with public money, much more quickly.
The current system permits settlements to go unreported and sexual harassment to be concealed. There is no accountability or transparency and therefore no deterrence — which is poor public policy. The challenges for women in the workplace will not end here, but these simple requirements could go a long way toward making clear whether a workplace is safe for women.
