When Is an Employer Liable for an Employee's Workplace Misconduct?

这个月, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision addressing when employers can be held liable for the actions of their employees.  加内特v. Remedi SeniorCare of Virginia, LLC concerned a situation where an employee went on sick leave for a day.  她不在的时候, her supervisor told her coworkers that she was having gynecological surgery and, 因此, 必须有性病.  The employee sued the supervisor and her employer for defamation. 

在它看来, the court confirmed that employers can be liable for their employees’ misconduct, even if the employer never intended for the conduct to occur, if it was done within the employee’s “scope of employment.”  That means that the employee’s improper action must be connected to the employer’s business interests or the employee must be using his position to facilitate the conduct.  法院表示, 在这种情况下, the employer both bears some responsibility for the tort and might have been able to prevent its commission by adopting different or more stringent workplace policies.” 

然而, the court affirmed that the employer cannot be held liable if the employee acts independently or in a manner that does not serve any of the employer’s goals.  The fact that the misconduct took place at work will not create employer liability on its own if it does not have any real relationship to the employer’s business mission or serve its interests.  The court noted that the supervisor’s comments were “odious and offensive,” but held that his employer could not be held liable since the supervisor’s duties did not include gossiping to coworkers. 

There are a couple of things that employers can take away from the court’s decision.  第一个, the court recognized that employers cannot and need not police all of their employees’ interactions. It is not necessary to place cameras in every corner or monitor every water cooler conversation just because someone might say or do something offensive. 

第二个, employers need to have policies that spell out what is not acceptable workplace behavior, and they need to enforce these policies.  By taking these precautions, employers can show that they made a concerted effort to prevent employee misconduct and should not be held liable if and when such conduct occurs.

杰夫•威尔逊 是一个现金网官网 & 现金网官网 attorney focusing his practice on employment law matters, including counseling and business litigation.