Although the typical sexual harassment claim consists of an allegation that a co-worker or supervisor has made unwelcome sexual advances towards an employee and/or has made inappropriate sexual comments and/or gestures in the work place, employers should remain aware that sexual harassment claims can also arise from acts and comments made by individuals from outside of your workplace as well. To the extent your employee is interacting with any individual in conjunction with his/her job including, but not limited to independent contractors, third party vendors, and/or clients, liability can attach to the company if it knew or should have known about harassment allegedly being conducted by an outside individual and failed to take appropriate remedial action. Accordingly, employers should treat possible sexual harassment by an outside individual as if it were harassment by a co-worker or manager.
