Seven employers across the United States are facing workplace harassment lawsuits filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) included Joseph Greenwald & Laake principal Jay Holland in an Aug. 10 collective list of articles published about these lawsuits on SHRM Online. Specifically, Holland was quoted in an Aug. 8 article that discussed employees secretly recording work conversations for litigation purposes.
SHRM notes that workplace harassment claims make up approximately one-fourth of EEOC cases filed recently, and that about one-third of discrimination charged received by the EEOC include harassment allegations. With smartphones becoming a staple in the workplace, it has become easier for employees to record conversations with co-workers, supervisors, human resources and company executives as support for upcoming lawsuits.
“A recording of sexual harassment or a discriminatory comment can be very powerful evidence and damaging to the employer,” Holland told SHRM Online.
The article went on to discuss the different types of consent required for recording conversations, such as one-party and all-party consent. Each state maintains its own laws on what type of consent is required. It also discussed rules about recording conversations under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), as well as potential public-relations risks from a leaked conversation, regardless of whether its recording was permitted or not.
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Jay Holland is a principal in JGL’s Civil Litigation Group, and the chair of the firm’s Labor, Employment and Qui Tam Whistleblower practice. He is a renowned employment and qui tam litigator known for taking on tough cases and achieving exceptional results.
