Here is the latest issue of “This & That” Tuesday. I hope you find it to be informative and useful.

Restaurant Pays $200,000 to Settle EEOC Sexual Harassment and Retaliation Suit

The owner/operator of a Hurricane Grill and Wings restaurant franchise in Royal Palm Beach, FL., pays $200,000 to settle a class sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the EEOC.

The EEOC claimed that the company violated federal law when it permitted a class of female servers to be sexually harassed by a customer, a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy. Later, the EEOC said, the company fired a female server after management learned she had hired a private attorney to assist her in filing an EEOC complaint. The suit alleges that the servers were frequently grabbed on their breasts and buttocks and humiliated by sexual innuendo, as well as direct invitations to join the harasser and his wife in ménage-a-trois.

Sexual harassment and retaliation for complaining about it violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. The company has agreed to amend and redistribute its sexual harassment policy; offer training to all employees, including management; post a notice regarding its continued effort to ensure that the Royal Palm Beach location is free of sexual harassment and its intent not to retaliate further; monitoring and reporting to the EEOC; and a written request for the offending patron to stay away from the facility.

Meeting Tips

Workers judge nearly 50 percent of their meetings to be a waste of time. That's why Jon Petz believes the meetings aren't the problem; it's the people who run them. Here are some of his tips.

• Stand up. Many companies have found success by removing chairs from a conference room and supplying only a white board. This eliminates a tendency to ramble about unnecessary issues. Aching feet prompt attendees to get down to business quickly. 
• Pass the pad. The last one to enter the room has to take notes for the meeting. This prevents many people from being late because they don't want to get stuck with the job. 
• Get moving. Sitting in a stuffy room trying to come up with innovative ideas can be draining, so move the meetings to a stairwell or walk outside. If you use the stairs, each participant has one flight to make a pitch or give a status report. 
• Try a speed meeting. Each participant is given 2 minutes to share information, such as sales figures or project updates. Follow-up questions are given 1 minute. 
• Build in social time. Make it part of the agenda. Put in the agenda that the meeting starts at 10 a.m., and there will be 10 minutes for bagels and coffee. Write down the time the first agenda item will be addressed. People love that. Once meeting times are strictly followed, the message will become clear and he says attendees won't be late. 
• Vary the time limit. If you deem a meeting will last an hour, it will last an hour if you have four items or 10 items to discuss. Be willing to designate a certain amount of time per item then move on. 
• Create a parking lot. Ever been in a meeting that goes off the rails and you end up discussing something off topic for an hour? Develop a system where these items are quickly identified and put in a "parking lot" to discuss later. Even better: Ask the person who gets off topic to research the idea and write a report that attendees read later. 
• Remember two things. Always ask why you're having the meeting and what you're going to walk out the door with. That will keep you on track and makes meetings meaningful.

None of these steps are meant to eliminate meetings because some meetings are necessary. For your meetings to be effective, all meeting participants just have to do a better job of respecting other people's time.

Employer Is Liable for Off-Duty Harassment, Pays $1,000,000

Employee is harassed at work. Employee reports harassment to his employer. Employer investigates immediately. Employer stops harassing behavior. Anything short of this will result in liability.

But what if the harassment occurs outside of work? Today, in the context of social media, this is becoming more common. In a recent California case, the plaintiff was an employee with a physical disability. In 2006, co-workers started two blogs, where they posted critical and spiteful comments about the plaintiff. Some of the posts attacked managers other than the plaintiff and about the workplace generally.

The employer did not sponsor or endorse the blog or participate in it in any official way. The plaintiff complained repeatedly to management of the blog posts, as well allegedly harassing conduct that occurred in the workplace.

Management apparently made some meager efforts to get the employees to stop posting about the plaintiff. For example, there were a couple of emails sent to the co-workers, instructing them to stop the postings. Those efforts were not successful, though, and the plaintiff filed suit for disability-based harassment. Following a trial, the jury awarded the plaintiff nearly a million dollars in damages.

The employer appealed and argued that it could not be held liable for conduct that occurred outside the workplace. The court rejected this argument. The reality is that the duty of an employer to protect its employees from unlawful harassment. This duty is unaffected by where the location occurs. If, for example, a sales employee is harassed by a customer in the customer's worksite, the employer's duty is unchanged–the law requires that the employer stop the harassment and protect the employee. Similarly, if the harassment occurs in cyberspace, the duty remains the same–the employer must protect the employee and stop the harassment.

Attention: Have you taken the HR4U mini-Human Resources audit, yet?