Texas Supreme Court tackles hostile work environment claim

The Texas Supreme Court will soon decide a case involving a sexually hostile work environment claim. It will rule on some still unresolved legal issues that are important to all Texas employers. Read on.

Sordid details

Nicole Harris went to work for the Fossil Group, which sells accessory items, in November 2018. One of her coworkers was Leland Brown. Although he was the assistant manager, he had little actual supervisory authority.

A month after Harris started, Brown allegedly sent her a sexually explicit video, naked pictures, and sexually explicit messages. He also left offensive sexual comments on her Instagram. She blocked him at first and then unblocked him. According to her:

He was pressuring me. So, like I said, I didn’t understand if I—I didn’t know he didn’t have the right to fire me, or else—I would have kept him blocked. . . . I didn’t know . . . if he could say something to someone to get me fired, for me to lose my job. So I was worried about not having a job.

Then things got worse:

Harris said Brown “was always pouncing himself on me and getting closer to me in the store. . . . He would always come and brush up against me, and—literally feeling the back of him and feeling his personal belongings, his area, I didn’t—I just didn’t feel safe.”