Reports

Sexual Harassment: How to Protect Your Fitness Business

CONTENT BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Sports & Fitness Insurance Corp.

What Is Sexual Harassment?

According to the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), sexual harassment is defined as “a form of sex discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.”

The victim, as well as the harasser, can be male or female, and the victim does not have to be of the opposite sex. The harasser’s conduct must be unwelcome. The harasser can be the victim’s supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker or a non-employee. The victim does not have to be the person harassed but can also be anyone affected by the offensive conduct. Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to the victim.

What Does Sexual Harassment Look Like in the Workplace?

There are two types of workplace sexual harassment. The first is the “quid pro quo” or “If you do this, I will give you that” instance where employment decisions are based on the employee’s willingness to grant sexual favors or willingness to submit to unwelcome behavior. One instance is enough to support a claim.

The second type of workplace sexual harassment is a hostile work environment. Verbal or nonverbal behavior is unwanted, unwelcome or severe enough to affect the person’s work environment. Examples of this include graphic remarks about an individual’s body, sexually degrading words used to refer to an individual, offensive comments or “dirty jokes” and sexual innuendos or displays or sexually suggestive objects or pictures.

What Does Sexual Harassment Look Like in a Fitness Business?

The types of workplace sexual harassment described above can happen in a fitness business. Additionally, due to the presence of clients and members inside of fitness facilities, there is also a potential for the sexual harassment of patrons.

Members, clients and guests to a fitness facility can be victims of unwanted sexual behavior by staff or other patrons. This can include both physical and verbal conduct of the same nature as outlined above in a hostile work environment.

Fitness professionals who work one on one with clients are especially at risk for claims of sexual abuse as their work can involve touching and personal communication. It is important for fitness professionals to keep all of their communication with clients professional at all times.

Fitness facilities with youth or children’s programming or a child watch area also have the potential for molestation, which would be any sexual behavior, verbal or nonverbal, wanted or unwanted towards a minor.

What Can a Fitness Business Operator Do to Prevent Sexual Harassment?

The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission encourages employers “to take steps necessary to prevent sexual harassment from occurring. They should clearly communicate to employees that sexual harassment will not be tolerated. They can do so by providing sexual harassment training to their employees and by establishing an effective complaint or grievance process and taking immediate and appropriate action when an employee complains.”

A fitness facility owner should inside their business has established policies and procedures to reduce to chances of sexual harassment of employees, members and guests, including minors and children if applicable.

This can be achieved by distributing a written anti-sexual harassment policy and a written safety policy for molestation prevention for minors, using an established procedure for investigating reported incidents and providing training to all staff. Background checks should be performed on all staff, including but not limited to staff that work with children.

What Should Be Included in a Fitness Facility’s Anti-Sexual Harassment Policy?

Your fitness business is legally obligated to provide a workplace that is free of discrimination and harassment of any type. This means creating, disseminating and enforcing a written anti-sexual abuse policy. The policy should include but not be limited to the following:

  • A statement prohibiting harassment
  • Definition of harassment and examples of prohibited behaviors
  • Complaint procedures designed to encourage employees to raise complaints
  • A provision to bypass the immediate supervisor if the supervisor is the harasser
  • Assurance that a prompt, thorough and confidential investigation will take place
  • Assurance that if a violation is found, there will be prompt corrective action taken
  • Assurance that there will be no retaliation for reporting the harassment

Appropriate legal counsel should be consulted to provide guidance on the creation or modification of the anti-sexual harassment policy and it should be reviewed with legal counsel on a regular basis.

What Can Employees Do?

Employees can help prevent sexual harassment by understanding and adhering to company policies, as well as being watchful. Employees should pay attention to their coworkers and members. All staff should avoid inadvertent offense by keeping communication professional. Employees can look for subtle forms of harassment from other staff members toward coworkers, members or guests. Employees should report any instances of possible sexual harassment immediately.

How Does Insurance Cover a Fitness Facility for Sexual Harassment?

First, the risk of claims for sexual harassment or discrimination of employees would be covered by an Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) policy. This is usually a separate policy from the Commercial General Liability (CGL) policy written for a fitness facility, although the CGL may include a sublimit for EPLI. This coverage is intended to protect the employer from claims made by employees. It is written on a claims made basis and can be obtained at different liability limits from $100,000 per occurrence to $1 million.

Second, the CGL should include coverage for sexual abuse and molestation (SAM) for a fitness facility. The limit of coverage may be less than the full limits of the CGL unless an additional premium is paid. Limits can vary from $100,000 per occurrence to $1 million. Almost all carriers now require background checks for all staff for the SAM coverage to be offered.  Most carriers also require written procedures for preventing the molestation of minors, including a written procedure that adults are not alone with minors, for the SAM coverage to be included when children are present in the fitness facility.

Conclusion

The U.S. EEOC states that prevention is the best tool to eliminate sexual harassment, sexual abuse and molestation in a workplace or fitness business. This article is intended to provide education and general guidelines to understand and prevent sexual harassment and encourage fitness business owners and managers to seek the involvement of appropriate legal counsel in establishing a harassment policy and guidelines for the prevention of sexual abuse in their workplaces.

The editorial staff had no role in this post's creation.