Montgomery County, MD: Harassment Claim Standard Relaxed

APPLIES TO

All Employers with Montgomery County, MD Employees

EFFECTIVE

January 15, 20221

QUESTIONS?

Contact HR On-Call

(888) 378-2456

Montgomery County recently revised the standard necessary for employees to prove they suffered harassment in the workplace. Specifically, the Human Rights Law no longer uses the “severe or pervasive” standard required under federal law to show that behavior rises to the level of harassment. Rather, harassment has occurred if, in part, “a reasonable victim of discrimination would consider the conduct to be more than a petty slight, trivial inconvenience, or minor annoyance.”

Bill 14-20 further requires one of the following factors be met: (1) submission to the conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment; (2) submission to or rejection of the conduct is used as a basis for employment decisions affecting the individual; or (3) the conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating a working environment that is perceived by the victim to be abusive or hostile. The same standards and protections were applied to sexual harassment.

Action Items

  1. Review the bill here.
  2. Have harassment training updated with the revised standards.
  3. Have harassment policies updated to reflect the new requirements.
  4. Subscribers can call our HR On-Call Hotline at (888) 378-2456 for further assistance.

Disclaimer: This document is designed to provide general information and guidance concerning employment-related issues. It is presented with the understanding that ManagEase is not engaged in rendering any legal opinions. If a legal opinion is needed, please contact the services of your own legal adviser.

© 2020 ManagEase

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply