Under the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD), hostile work environment (also known as “harassment”) is a form of unlawful employment discrimination.
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WLAD: HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT
Generally, to establish a claim of hostile work environment, the plaintiff must establish the following: the harassment was unwelcome; the harassment was because of membership in a protected class; the harassment affected the terms and conditions or employment; and the harassment can be imputed to the employer.
Here are my top 3 hostile work environment issues under the WLAD:
#1 – The Harassment was Unwelcome & Because of Protected Class
In order to establish harassment, “the complained of conduct must be unwelcome in the sense that the plaintiff-employee did not solicit or incite it, and in the further sense that the employee regarded the conduct as undesirable or offensive.” Glasgow v. Georgia Pacific Corp., 103 Wn.2d 401, 406 (Wash. 1985).
Moreover, the harassment must be on account of the plaintiff’s membership in one or more protected classes. See id. “The question to be answered here is: would the employee have been singled out and caused to suffer the harassment if the employee had not been in” the protected class? See id.
#2 – The Harassment Affected Terms or Conditions of Employment
“Casual, isolated or trivial manifestations of a discriminatory environment do not affect the terms or conditions of employment to a sufficiently significant degree to violate the law.” Id. at 406-07. To be actionable, “the harassment must be sufficiently pervasive so as to alter the conditions of employment and create an abusive working environment.” Id.
#3 – The Harassment is Imputed to Employer
Harassment is imputed to the employer where there is sufficient proof that an owner, manager, partner or corporate officer personally participates in the harassment. Id. at 407.
Otherwise, “to hold an employer responsible for the discriminatory work environment created by a plaintiff’s supervisor(s) or co-worker(s), the employee must show that the employer (a) authorized, knew, or should have known of the harassment and (b) failed to take reasonably prompt and adequate corrective action.” Id.
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–gw