Is Your Business at Risk?

There are positive reasons to consider your workplace climate: Preventing discrimination and harassment boosts worker morale and productivity. But there are also costly negatives you want to avoid: Discrimination and harassment lawsuits cost companies more and more each year. A study released in January 2002 by Jury Verdict Research, Inc., found that 

• the national median jury award for employment-practice liability cases, which include discrimination and retaliation claims, rose 44% — from $151,000 to $218,000 — between 1999 and 2000. The median award had stayed level at about $150,000 between 1997 and 1999. 

• of all discrimination types, age discrimination plaintiffs won the most money from 1994-2000

• the overall median jury award in discrimination cases was $150,000 for the seven-year span.

The study also showed an increase in public awareness and jury sympathy for the plaintiffs in discrimination cases:

• In 2000, 62% of plaintiffs in sex discrimination cases (including sexual harassment) won their cases, compared with only 43% in 1994

• 67% of race discrimination plaintiffs won their cases in 2000, compared with 50% in 1994

A 1999 survey of 496 companies published by the Society for Human Resource Management revealed that:

• sexual harassment complaints increased at those companies by almost 140% between 1995 and 1998

• small businesses averaged nearly one claim per 100 employees in 1998 — five times higher than the rate of one claim per 500 among large businesses

• only 51% of small businesses said that they offered sexual harassment prevention training, while 76% of large companies did.

These statistics suggest that whether your company is large or small, you need to take harassment and discrimination prevention training seriously.