\u201cHe\u2019s a regular. Just deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is what her shift manager said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The customer had been coming in for two years. He always asked for her section. He commented on her body, her hair, what she was wearing under her uniform. He left big tips and the manager called him \u201cgood for business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said something. The manager said the line above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then he said it again the next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here is what most people do not know: under Title VII and FEHA \u2014 with FEHA controlling in California \u2014 your employer is responsible for harassment by a customer, vendor, contractor, or any non-employee when the employer knows or should know and does not take action to stop it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Control over the harasser is not required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The law looks at what the employer did with what it knew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What the employer said does not decide the case. What the employer did decides the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Available employer responses are wider than most workers realize:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Reassign you to a different section, shift, or location with no loss of pay or hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Limit the customer\u2019s access \u2014 refuse service, ask him to leave, or ban him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Warn the customer in writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Restructure who handles his table or his account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Terminate the business relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the response was \u201cjust deal with it,\u201d that is the evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the response was \u201cwe cannot lose this customer,\u201d that is the evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the response was nothing, that is the evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three things to know about timing. California has deadlines on these claims. The deadlines start running before most people realize a claim exists. And the documentation you keep now \u2014 texts to coworkers, dates, what was said, who saw it \u2014 is the documentation the case will turn on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You do not have to accept harassment because the harasser is a customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your employer\u2019s job is to protect you on the job. The law sees the difference between a workplace and a tip jar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This post shares general information based on common patterns I see in California workplaces. It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and outcomes depend on specific facts \u2014 no lawyer can guarantee a result. Past results do not guarantee or predict future outcomes. AI may have been used to create this post. All content reviewed by a CA attorney before publication.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cHe\u2019s a regular. Just deal with it.\u201d That is what her shift manager said. The customer had been coming in for two years. He always asked for her section. He commented on her body, her hair, what she was wearing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,28,42,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compliance","category-employee-relations","category-other-discrimination","category-retaliation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaeltrustlaw.com\/mystaging01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaeltrustlaw.com\/mystaging01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaeltrustlaw.com\/mystaging01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaeltrustlaw.com\/mystaging01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaeltrustlaw.com\/mystaging01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/michaeltrustlaw.com\/mystaging01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5772,"href":"https:\/\/michaeltrustlaw.com\/mystaging01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5771\/revisions\/5772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaeltrustlaw.com\/mystaging01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaeltrustlaw.com\/mystaging01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaeltrustlaw.com\/mystaging01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaeltrustlaw.com\/mystaging01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}