Clark County is rolling out new anti-harassment training for its employees and elected officials in the coming weeks, under a policy approved unanimously by commissioners.
The new policy updates the county’s rules regarding sexual and workplace harassment, including bullying, and revises the complaint process.
Commissioners voted today to roll out the policy to give residents and employees a clear process to pursue complaints.
The change comes as harassment complaints continue to come out against public figures, including in Nevada. The council’s vote follows similar moves by groups, including the Nevada Legislature, to make these policies more effective and robust.
County Human Resources Director Sandy Jeantete told commissioners the policy would go out to employees this week before the training is made available, and resources will be put online.
The new guidelines have an expanded scope to apply to a county employee’s conduct during lunch hours or when off-duty conduct is related to the job.
“Sexual harassment in the workplace will not be tolerated, that language was there previously,” Jeantete said, noting that the policy now also references behavior that has the potential for creating a hostile work environment. “Sexual harassment obviously has several components. One of those components could be a hostile work environment, so we wanted to make sure we were clear about that.”
Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani requested the policy update in February, and the commission discussed the proposal in March.
Giunchigliani raised a concern today about confidential disciplinary actions and sharing information about complaints between the Office of Diversity and the HR Department. Without sharing information, repeat offenders could find a loophole to continue their behavior, she said.
“You could have a serial individual and you’d never know because that was kept confidential — that that behavior had appeared before,” Giunchigliani said.
The county’s Office of Diversity is within its Human Resources Department, which keeps track of complaints, Jeantete said. The department has data going back to 2006 so officials can see if there have been past complaints against an individual.
In cases that result in discipline, Jeantete said, the specifics of the punishment are not made public or given to the person who filed the complaint. She said this is an issue of personnel confidentiality.
The Office of Diversity coordinates with employee and labor relations analysts. These analysts are present during meetings related to discipline that stem from complaints filed with the Office of Diversity.
“We certainly could do the same thing when we’re dealing with issues of bullying and workplace harassment,” Jeantete said. “This is new to our policy. It’s not that behavior that happened previously would not have been addressed, but that coordination, I can absolutely make sure that takes place between both groups.”
Complaints are typically investigated in about three months, but harassment cases can take longer to investigate, Jeantete said.
These cases can require more interviews and involve union representatives, among other factors that make the investigations more complex than typical employee relations investigations.
Jeantete said officials will work on keeping complainants better informed if investigations are taking longer than expected. People now get information when they file complaints, when they come in for their interview as part of the investigation and when a finding is reached.
When complaints come in, there is “sort of a triage process,” she said. “If something comes in, at that point it’s an allegation, but if it is of serious concern, then that one would move to the top of the list and we would investigate it more quickly.”
People can pursue complaints at the county level or through the Nevada Equal Rights Commission, which oversees that state’s equal employment opportunity program, or the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which works with the NERC.