U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin
If you work hard and play by the rules, US Senator Tammy Baldwin says, you should have the opportunity for success without suffering in a hostile environment. The Wisconsin Democrat introduces legislation requiring zero tolerance for discrimination in the workplace. Baldwin says women are disproportionately affected.
AUDIO: Baldwin says everyone should have the opportunity for success without suffering in a hostile environment. :50
The Fair Employment Protection Act would ensure that Americans harassed on the job by their supervisors are able to get justice. Baldwin says legal protections for victims of workplace harassment were weakened last year by a Supreme Court decision*. The High Court defined the word “supervisor” very narrowly, Baldwin says, as having the power to hire or fire, but she says the role is more than that.
AUDIO: This legislation focuses on the definition of the word supervisor. :58
And Baldwin says the employer has to bear some of the responsibility for allowing that supervisor to exercise that power.
Senator Baldwin joins Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Congressman George Miller (D-CA), and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) in introducing the Fair Employment Protection Act.
*U.S. Supreme Court 5-4 decision in Vance v. Ball State University June 24, 2013.