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Accused of harrasment I work at a large hospital. I am also a member of a labor union. I've been accused of harrasment based on the following. Our director has asked us to submit either written or verbal testamony on why we feel the afternoon charge nurse is not performing well. I have also been approached by various employees and asked if I'm going to submit testamony to have her disciplined. I felt that the director was going about it all wrong and should have let HR handle the complaints. What I did was tell the afternoon charge nurse that I've been asked to make statements about her by various workers in my department i should also add that HR had zero knowledge about this request for. She was obviously upset and confronted the director who of course denyed ever making such a statement. Now Ive been called to HR and asked where did I recived such information. Did I Harras the charge nurse by providing this info to her. By the way there are many witnesses that heard the original request for statements from the director.
Optional Information: Country relating to Question: United States
Hello I am a licensed attorney here to help you with your question, please review my response and do not hesitate to ask for clarification.
This is an unfortunate situation, however, the idea or allegation that your actions were harassment are clearly false, unless you intentionally made up the statements, and intentionally stated this to her to cause her to be annoyed or harassed, I do not see how in any way this could be considered harassment.
If anything you may be in violation of advising her of the investigation if the director, specifically advised you not to tell the employee of the investigation, but this is not harassment.
Also, harassment is not against the law, only harassment that is based upon an employees protected civil rights is a violation of law, such as the employees race, gender, age etc.
What you should do is adivse the HR for a cler internal policy whihc you violated, or an internal definition, of "harassment", as they may have their own, but from the legal sense you did not harass her.
Experience: 13 years experience, Union NYSUT lawyer
Thank you for your response. Im in agreement with you and suspect that the reason I was questioned by HR is that the director denied ever saying these things. I suspect that the charge nurse is starting to believe that she was indeed targeted and feels bad for getting me involved.. By the way I was nor was anyone else ever told to keep this confidential, This in my opinion was only a way for the director to gather information to discipline or dismiss the Charge nurse HR was not in the loop
Then you should be stern in your defense, and mention to them you di nothing wrong.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to ask.