The Cost of Not Having a Company Harassment Policy

by Cristina Mendonsa June 06, 2018

The #MeToo movement continues to make waves across the country, shining a light on sexual harassment in the workplace.

Dollar General Corporation will pay $70,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. equal Employment Opportunity Commission. According to the lawsuit, store officials in Red Banks, Mississippi ignored several employee complaints about a managers unwanted sexual comments, text messages and gestures.

Dollar General continued to employ the manager for several months after the sales associate’s initial complaint, the EEOC said.

“In fact, in this day and age, one would expect a corporation as large as Dollar General to already have such a firm policy in place and seriously enforced,” said EEOC Trail Attorney Markeisha Savage. “In addition to having an anti-harassment policy, employers must also enforce it. An unenforced anti-harassment policy is tanta­mount to having no policy at all.”

All Dollar General employees working within the district of the Red Banks store will also be required to undergo mandatory sexual harassment training, with civility and bystander intervention training.

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