Labor / Employment, On The Job

Hair On Fire, Heart Attacks, And … A Female Santa Claus?

Are we to assume that Santa is 'authentic' and, therefore, a woman cannot be Santa?

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A few items caught my eye this week, which I thought would make an interesting smorgasbord.

Mostly not good, however.

Bloomberg reported that “[s]ome 51 percent of women at law firms say they have been bullied at work, and 35 percent say they’ve been sexually harassed, and in 19 percent of cases clients are doing the harassing, according to new data from legal research firm Acritas’ poll of 5,000 lawyers worldwide.”

That’s a lot of bullying.

Too bad workplace bullying is not actionable per se — unless it involves or devolves into harassment based upon a protected class.

In one of my first ATL posts, I noted that there were no federal or state laws defining or regulating workplace bullying, although at least half the states have debated enacting such a law.   Therefore, as I wrote, “bullies are largely immune from any legal remedy in the U.S. unless the bullies commit something like assault, or bully others because of their protected class status, such as age, race or sex.  That’s where something like sexual harassment comes in.”  (A good place to review how bullying and harassment are legislatively treated globally, I recommend once again Ellen Cobb’s excellent book, Workplace Bullying and Harassment: New Developments in International Law.)

Actionable or not, workplace bullying is hardly benign — and, indeed, can be deadly.

Sponsored

A new study on the dire health effects of workplace bullying and violence has been reverberating worldwide and perhaps … maybe … possibly … might open the door to the possibility for the enactment, or at least serious discussion, of anti-bullying legislation, which has been effectively stalled in the U.S.

The study concluded that “[p]eople who are bullied at work or experience violence at work are at higher risk of heart and brain blood vessel problems, including heart attacks and stroke, according to the largest prospective study to investigate the link, which is published in the European Heart Journal.”

Workplace Bullying and Cardiovascular Disease

Wrap you mind around these stats: “Bullied workers had a 59 percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease, and victims of violence or threats of violence had a 25 percent higher risk … And more bullying and violence meant an even greater risk of heart problems — with workers bullied every day having a 120 percent higher risk of cardiovascular issues.”

One could fairly say that this is a substantial workplace safety issue, and in better times might interest the good folks at OSHA.

Sponsored

And while 91 percent of those committing workplace violence were not employees of the workplace, 79 percent of workplace bullies were co-workers, supervisors or subordinates.  Interesting stat.

The Danish leader of the study said: “If there is a causal link between bullying or violence at work and cardiovascular disease, then the removal of workplace bullying would mean we could avoid five per cent of all cardiovascular cases, and the eradication of violence at work would avoid more than three per cent of all cases.”

One could fairly say that this is also a substantial medical issue, and might interest the good folks at the AMA — and health insurance companies.

It is also another very significant reason to consider anti-bullying legislation — as Prof. David Yamada, Director of the New Workplace Institute has been advocating … forever.

How About New Zealand?

Oh yes, speaking of New Zealand, the head of the U.S. Workplace Bullying Institute addressed a letter to the Prime Minister, in which he noted that the country could eliminate workplace bullying if government and business were “willing to tackle the problem. … I think it’s doable because of your size.”  Apparently, a recent study showed that New Zealand has the second-worst rate of workplace bullying in the developed world — affecting 20 percent of workers.

“It is no longer ethical to support those who batter others, he said, [y]et, when abusers are on the payroll, use workplaces to verbally abuse, threaten, humiliate, intimidate or sabotage another person of any rank, abusers can count on employer and legal support.”

Things Get Worse…

Finally, get ready for a real bad case of bullying, albeit of the schoolyard kind: a 13-year-old Philadelphia girl had her hair set on fire by a classmate — a 13-year-old boy — and suffered first degree burns on her head.

The group Teach Anti Bullying awarded her its Medal of Courage.

“Who would notice if it’s a man or woman in the Santa suit in any event?”

To end on a less somber note, I just read — also from New Zealand — that “The Farmers Auckland Christmas parade fired its Santa, Neville Baker, after he said a woman Santa wouldn’t be authentic. Mr. Baker said he didn’t want children to notice Santa’s boobs and would instead dress up female applicants as Santa’s helpers in a ‘little skirt and top.’”

An employment lawyer said that there’s “no reason Santa can’t be a woman,” and that under the Human Rights Act, discrimination on the basis of sex is illegal.

However, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Commission was somewhat equivocal: while indeed sex was a “prohibited ground of discrimination” under the Human Rights Act, circumstances such as “reasons of authenticity” make it OK.

So, are we then to assume that Santa is “authentic” and, therefore, a woman cannot be Santa?  Reminds me of the contentious debate not long ago about whether Santa was black.

Takeaway

Happy holidays, anyone?

richard-b-cohenRichard B. Cohen has litigated and arbitrated complex business and employment disputes for almost 40 years, and is a partner in the NYC office of the national “cloud” law firm FisherBroyles. He is the creator and author of his firm’s Employment Discrimination blog, and received an award from the American Bar Association for his blog posts. You can reach him at Richard.Cohen@fisherbroyles.com and follow him on Twitter at @richard09535496.

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