EEOC Releases Enforcement Guidance on Vicarious Employer Liability for Unlawful Harassment by Supervisors

On June 18, 1999, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the "EEOC") released an enforcement guidance on vicarious employer liability for unlawful harassment by supervisors. The enforcement guidance is based on two recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court in Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth, 118 S. Ct. 2257 (1998) and Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 118 S. Ct. 2275 (1998). In those companion cases, the Supreme Court set forth the standard under which employers will be vicariously liable for unlawful sexual harassment by supervisors. The enforcement guidance ("Guidance") sets forth how the EEOC interprets those cases and how it will apply them in its enforcement of federal laws prohibiting discrimination.

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