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Recommendation to request City Attorney to prepare a resolution in support of women, LGBTQIA+ and other employees who have filed complaints of harassment by various employees of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and supports the calls for a Joint Legislative Audit Committee.
DISCUSSION
The resolution should include the following tenants:
1. All allegations of sexual harassment filed by female and LGBTQIA+ employees of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California should be fully investigated, through a neutral, independent third-party investigative process, which should not be impeded by arbitrary timelines or restrictive funding.
2. The investigation should be thorough and include all relevant interviews with reporting parties, alleged perpetrators of said harassment, any potential witnesses to the conducts/statements, actions taken which impacted the reporting parties, and all co-workers and/or all supervisors who may have information bearing upon the factual accuracy and/or credibility of said allegations.
3. The woman and LGBTQIA+ employees who have reported such harassment should not be subject to any additional harassment through their work assignments, disclosure of their identifying information without their permission, or other circumstances as overseen by their employers.
BACKGROUND:
Employees in all workplaces, whether public or private, should feel safe from harassment of any kind, whether such harassment is based on their gender, race, or other identification characteristic.
There have been recent reports that female and LGBTQIA+ employees (working in nontraditional female jobs) of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California have been harmed by substantiated allegations of harassment and disparate treatment. Unfortunately, Sexual Harassment in the workplace, and especially the construction and building trade environments is a well-known and oft-reported reality.[1] This reality is particularly d...
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