Must Employers Protect Employees From Sexual Harassment By Customers?
A common employment law myth, our sexual harassment lawyers in Citrus County, Florida have learned, is that employees are not protected from sexual harassment by customers. Most sexual harassment cases involve the behavior of co-workers or supervisors. In some cases, however, non-employees are the source of the sexual harassment. Customers are one example of non-employee harassers.
Under federal employment discrimination law, employers are obligated to protect employees from sexual harassment by non-employees. Once an employer knows or should know that a worker is being sexually harassed by a non-employee, the employer is required to take prompt and effective remedial action to stop the harassment and prevent the harassment from recurring. If the employer takes no remedial action, or the remedial action taken does not end the harassment, the employer is liable under federal employment discrimination law for creating and maintaining a sexually hostile work environment.
In this article, our sexual harassment lawyers in Citrus County, Florida explain how the decision in Glapion v. Saks Fifth Avenue, LLC,2025 WL 506649 (E.D. La. Feb. 14, 2025) demonstrates that employees are protected from sexual harassment by customers.
Sexual Harassment Lawsuit
In that case, a woman named Glapion brought a sexual harassment claim against her former employer, Saks Fifth Avenue, LLC (“Saks”), pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”). Title VII protects employees from sex discrimination. Under well-established law, sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination forbidden by Title VII. To violate Title VII, sexual harassment must be sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim’s employment and create an abusive working environment. Glapion alleges that she was required to work in a sexually hostile environment in violation of Title VII.
In May 2022, Glapion began working at Saks as a sales associate. Glapion alleges that, during her employment with Saks, she was sexually harassed by a customer over an eighteen-month period. Glapion claims that the customer pulled her into a dressing room and attempted to kiss her, frequently visited the store to watch her work, followed her inside and immediately outside the store, and grabbed her arm while saying “Happy Mother’s Day Slim.” Glapion asserts that after each incident with the customer, she reported his behavior to store management. Glapion alleges that her manager instructed her to leave the store or take her lunch break if she saw the customer again.
Throughout the course of the alleged harassment, Glapion contends that she alerted Saks by telling her manager, sending a picture of the customer to asset protection, and reporting the history of his behavior to human resources. Approximately eleven months after Glapion allegedly first reported the issue with the customer, she filed a police report. About two months after Glapion filed the police report, she met against with management to discuss the issues with the customer. Glapion maintains that management told her that she needed “more than a police report” to keep the customer from the store and that she would have to file a restraining order. Glapion alleges that she was forced to take a one-month leave because she was depressed and afraid for her safety. The customer continued to enter the store until Glapion’s termination.
Following her period of leave, Glapion returned to Saks. Upon her return, Glapion claims that she received conflicting information about where in the store she was allowed to make sales and that male associates were allowed to work in certain areas that she was not. In June 2024, Glapion was fired allegedly because she entered an area of the store designated to certain male co-workers and assisted their clients. Glapion contends that the reason given for her termination was pretexual as other male associates were able to enter any area of the store to assist customers. Glapion believes that she was actually terminated for filing the police report and complaining about the sexual harassment to her supervisors.
Protection From Customer Sexual Harassment
Saks filed a motion with the trial court seeking dismissal of Glapion’s sexual harassment claim. In denying Saks’ motion for dismissal, the trial court explained that “it is well-established” that “a customer’s behavior can give rise to a cause of action for a hostile work environment if the employer was aware of that behavior and allowed it to continue.” In applying this principle, the trial court observed that Glapion “alleges that several instances of sexual harassment by [the customer], including an incident in which he attempted to kiss her, grabbed her arm, and stalked her.” The trial court also pointed out that Glapion “alleges that she reported this behavior to her employer through meetings with her supervisors, contacting asset protection, and reporting her history with [the customer] to human resources and nothing was done to prevent this behavior.” The trial court concluded that based on these allegations, Glapion had stated a viable claim for hostile work environment sexual harassment.
Free Consultation For Harassment Victims
One of the most important decisions hostile work environment harassment victims must make is which employment attorneys to consult with regarding their rights. As part of our decades long dedication to assisting sexual harassment victims, an experienced sexual harassment attorney will speak with you personally and you will receive the individualized attention your case deserves. We offer free confidential case evaluations for sexual harassment victims, and you will not have to pay to speak with our sexual harassment attorneys regarding your rights. We are available for consultation at your convenience, including scheduling telephone consultations for evenings and weekends.
Citrus County Sexual Harassment Lawyers
Based in Ocala, Florida and representing workers throughout Florida, our sexual harassment attorneys in Citrus County, Florida have litigated sexual harassment cases in Florida courts for more than twenty years. If you have been sexually harassed at work or have questions about your protection from sexual harassment by a customer, please contact our office for a free consultation with our sexual harassment lawyers in Citrus County, Florida. Our employee rights law firm takes sexual harassment cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that there are no attorney’s fees incurred unless there is a recovery, and our attorney’s fees come solely from the monetary award that you recover.
