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Harassment
Sexual Harassment Policy Statement
All the employees of Volt Information Sciences, Inc., and its subsidiaries and divisions are being informed that such sex-related intimidation at any work place within the Volt family constitutes sex discrimination and is hereby prohibited under Volt's long standing policies against discrimination based on sex.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission established guidelines setting forth the following criteria by which to determine the unlawfulness of sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment would be considered to exist if:
Submission to some "conduct of a sexual nature" is either an explicit or implicit term or condition of employment.
The harassment has effect of substantially interfering with the individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.
Submission or rejection serves as the basis for an employment decision.
While it is not possible to list all those additional circumstances that may constitute sexual harassment, the following are some examples of conduct which if unwelcome, may constitute sexual harassment depending upon the totality of the circumstances including the severity of the conduct and its pervasiveness:
- Unwelcome sexual advances - whether they involve physical touching or not;
- Sexual epithets, jokes, written or oral references to sexual conduct, gossip regarding one's sex life; comment on an individual's body, comment about an individual's sexual activity, deficiencies, or prowess;
- Offensive e-mail or voice-mail messages;
- Displaying sexually suggestive objects, pictures, cartoons;
- Unwelcome leering, whistling, brushing against the body, sexual gestures, suggestive or insulting comments;
- Inquiries into one's sexual experiences; and,
- Discussion of one's sexual activities;
- Any other conduct or behavior deemed inappropriate by Volt.
Sexual harassment has no place in the ordinary course of business, and is, in fact, unlawful. Specifically, it must in no way be exercised for purposes of an intimidating effect on employment decisions such as promotion, termination, hiring, training, wage and salary increases, transfer, or any other matter that affects the ability of an employee to perform job duties. Managers and supervisors are to insure that no such intimidation or harmful atmosphere of unwelcome sexual overtones exists in their workplaces. Every effort should be made to sensitive themselves and their employees to the differences between purely social overtones and those intended to affect working conditions. Also, employees are responsible for respecting the rights of their co-workers.
It is the right of any employee to make a complaint through any complaint procedure within the Company and its subsidiaries and divisions, or in the absence of formal complaint procedures to the Human Resources and/or Branch Manager at their facility, to the Regional Manager or Division Human Resources Manager in their Region or Division as well as directly to the Vice President of Human Resources at Corporate Headquarters, 560 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022, (212) 704-2423. All such complaints must be investigated without undue delay and reported to the Regional Manager or Divisional Human Resources Director or Manager. The investigation will be conducted in such a way as to maintain confidentiality to the extent practicable under the circumstances. We hope, however, that such complaints can be avoided by each Volt employee respecting the dignity and personal wishes of each Volt employee and by exhibiting the highest standards of social business behavior at all time. In fact, employees often can stop or prevent sexual harassment by immediately and directly expressing their disapproval of such conduct to the person committing the offense.
Using Volt's complaint procedures does not prohibit you from filing a complaint with your local, state or federal agency responsible for investigating sexual harassment. Please see the bulletin board in your office where the addresses and phone numbers for these agencies are posted. Please note that there may be a time limit during which a claim may be filed.
If it is determined that inappropriate conduct has been committed by one of our employees, we will take action as is appropriate under the circumstances. Such action may range from counseling to termination of employment, and may include such other forms of disciplinary action, as we deem appropriate under the circumstances. Further, any retaliation against an individual who has complained about sexual harassment or retaliation against individuals for cooperation with an investigation of a sexual harassment complaint is similarly unlawful and will not be tolerated.
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