Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/944397
T H E L O C A L AN EMPLOYEE'S RIGHT TO INFORMATION ABOUT SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE. In 2017, entertainment industry workers created the anti-sexual harassment zeitgeist that is currently sweeping our nation. The new year poses new challenges for workers seeking information about harassment that has already occurred in the workplace. Unfortunately, documentation of any sexual misconduct that results in litigation or settlement is likely to be subject to a legal privilege or confidentiality agreement. But are there ways an employee can gather pertinent information? CHECK THE LOG. Cal/OSHA (California Occupational Safety and Health Act ) offers, at best, limited information about sexual harassment that results in psychological injuries. Entertainment industry employers in California have a duty to keep records of all work-related injuries or illnesses that result in lost time beyond the date of injury or illness, or which require medical treatment beyond first aid on a Cal/OSHA Log Form 300 ("Log"). In spite of these rules, you still might not find reportable incidents in your employer's Log: sexual harassment often goes unreported and, even if reported, employers may misunderstand their duty to record psychological harm. The Log must provide enough information to identify the cause of the incident and the general severity of the injury, but will not include details that are intimate, private, or personally identifiable. Individuals cannot see the names of persons with injuries stemming from work- related sexual assault, injury to reproductive organs, mental illness, or any other injury if requested by the employee. Instead, these cases will be labeled as a "privacy case" in the Log. For that reason, Cal/OSHA's recordkeeping requirements may not be informative in all situations. For example, a person videotaping employees in the restroom, if done surreptitiously, may not lead to any actual reported psychological injury. While there may be no record in the employer's logs, it may still be worth asking for them, if not simply to remind the employer of its reporting obligations. REQUEST INFORMATION THROUGH THE UNION. If the logs do not produce any information, then employees can still contact the Animation Guild to see whether or not it can make a request for information pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement or the NLRA (National Labor Relations Act ). Under the NLRA, employers have a duty to furnish information to a union if that information is required by the union to perform its duties. Using the surveillance example, the Union and the employee do not have to have conclusive proof that such surveillance is going on to make that request; it should be enough if they have a reasonable good faith basis for that belief. In addition, while an information demand is stronger if tied to a grievance, it is not limited to those cases. TAG has the right to investigate any workplace conditions that might be FOLLOW THE ROLLING HEADS "These rights must be exercised to have any value." Michael D. Four, Esq.