EEOC issues guidance on workplace harassment and provides additional examples

On April 29, 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued its long-anticipated final guidance on workplace harassment and provided specific examples of behavior that constitutes unlawful harassment.

Highlights from the guidance

The guidance is organized by the three components of a harassment claim: (1) covered bases and causation; (2) discrimination with respect to a term, condition, or privilege of employment; and (3) liability. It includes 77 examples of various harassment scenarios that might arise in the workplace—many with citations to existing case law—and states how the EEOC would view each scenario.

It also addresses current workplace concerns, including telework, intraclass discrimination (i.e., one member of a protected class discriminating or harassing another member of the same protected class based on that class); guidance on the legal standard of liability (i.e., automatic, vicarious, or negligence) in harassment cases depending on the harasser’s relationship to the employer; and guidance on establishing an affirmative defense to a claim of harassment.