Massive payout in discrimination case

Massive payout in discrimination case – This is a US case, however Australian employers should take note of the USD $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages (16.6 million AUD) — finding that SHRM discriminated against the employee and then terminated her employment when she reported the discrimination.

The article relating to the case of Mohamed v. SHRM highlighted some key findings

Conduct the Investigation Promptly: Investigations should be conducted as soon as reasonably possible after the complaint/incident or situation is reported. Employers should act quickly,  however it is vitally important  that an investigation should not be rushed, some delays are unavoidable But they must be explainable.

It is important to remember that a rushed investigation could compromise procedural fairness, especially if the organisation wants to rush the interview with the respondent without allowing the investigator sufficient time to gather evidence and draught the necessary correspondence to the respondent to allow the respondent to understand what the complaint is and provide them with the opportunity to respond, often known as the right to know and the right to be heard.

It is also important to remember that are respondent must be provided with sufficient time to consider their response, perhaps seek advice legal or otherwise and organise a support person.

These delays are explainable if required

Engaging an impartial, qualified and experienced investigator: Investigations should be conducted by someone who is well trained especially in the areas of complaint analysis, interview planning, conducting workplace interviews with complainants witnesses and respondents, analysing evidence and report writing.

It is important to ensure that the person conducting the investigation does not have an ongoing relationship especially our reporting line to the respondent, this could be considered a definite conflict of interest and could lead to investigator bias.

During an investigation it is important that the investigator is not subjected to The expectations of the organisation in relation to how the investigation is conducted and the potential outcomes that the organisation may seek.

This is a key benefit in engaging an external investigator.

Be thorough and DOCUMENT!: If in doubt document, document, document

It is important that all the steps in the investigation and the investigation findings are clearly documented. It is not enough just to make findings the findings must be logical and based on evidence and the investigator must be able to point to that evidence and the reason why they made the findings in their final report.

This not only relevant in the specific investigation or complaint, it can assist employers to identify Issues within the organisation, patterns of inappropriate behavior so as to take action to prevent future issues. It can also be useful to identify gaps in the policy or training within the organisation.

A professioal investigation can show that the employer is committed to addressing bullying, harassment, sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace. It should also be noted that this is a vital component of employers satisfying the positive duty under the Sex Discrimination Act to take all reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate as far as possible sex discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace.

It is extremely important that during a workplace investigation you get it right the first time every time, there is no margin of error. An ineffective workplace investigations can not only have an adverse monetary effect on the organisation such as the $11.5 million (USD) (16.6 million dollars AUD) compensation payout in the matter linked about but is can Have a significantly adverse effect on the parties including the complainant and respondent.

Massive payout in discrimination case – How can AWPTI help you to avoid this;

Engage an expert, AWPTI Can provide you with full investigation services;

• We can ensure;
  • Transparency
  • Independence
  • An absence of Bias
  • An absence of Conflicts of Interest

AWPTI Can provide your organisation with complete workplace investigation training to ensure that the person nominated to conduct an investigation internally has the skills to understand the complete best practise workplace investigation process.

We have courses for organisations that are charged at a flat rate with no limit on attendees (details here) or open courses an ideal situation where there’s only one or two employees needing the training.

We have two open courses coming up detail here

Please contact me via enquiries@awpti.com.au or our contact page if you would like to organise a course for your organisation or you would like to join an upcoming open course.

If you are a HR consultant conducting workplace investigations this course is essentially important for your business or career development

Please feel free to see what past participants have said about the courses – details here