19B.12 Sexual harassment prohibited.

A state employee shall not sexually harass another state employee, a person in the care or custody of the state employee or a state institution, or a person attending a state educational institution. This section applies to full-time, part-time, or temporary employees, to inpatients and outpatients, and to full-time or part-time students.

1. An employee in a supervisory position shall not threaten or insinuate, explicitly or implicitly, that another employee’s refusal to submit to sexual advances will adversely affect the employee’s employment, evaluation, salary advancement, job assignments, or other terms, conditions, or privileges of employment.

2. An employee shall not discriminate against another state employee, a person in the care or custody of the employee or a state institution, or a person attending a state educational institution based on sex or create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment in a state work, educational, or correctional situation.

3. a. As used in this section, “sexual harassment” means persistent, repetitive, or highly egregious conduct directed at a specific individual or group of individuals that a reasonable person would interpret as intentional harassment of a sexual nature, taking into consideration the full context in which the conduct occurs, which conduct threatens to impair the ability of a person to perform the duties of employment, or otherwise function normally within an institution responsible for the person’s care, rehabilitation, education, or training.

b. “Sexual harassment” may include, but is not limited to, the following:

(1) Unsolicited sexual advances by a person toward another person who has clearly communicated the other person’s desire not to be the subject of those advances.

(2) Sexual advances or propositions made by a person having superior authority toward another person within the workplace or institution.

(3) Instances of offensive sexual remarks or speech or graphic sexual displays directed at a person in the workplace or institution, who has clearly communicated the person’s objection to that conduct, and where the person is not free to avoid that conduct due to the requirements of the employment or the confines or operations of the institution.

(4) Dress requirements that bear no relation to the person’s employment responsibilities or institutional status.

4. The department of administrative services for all state agencies, and the state board of regents for its institutions, shall adopt rules and appropriate internal, confidential grievance procedures to implement this section, and shall adopt procedures for determining violations of this section and for ordering appropriate dispositions that may include, but are not limited to, discharge, suspension, or reduction in rank or grade as defined in section 8A.413, subsection 19.

5. The department of administrative services shall develop for all state agencies, and all state agencies shall distribute at the time of hiring or orientation, a guide for employees that describes the applicable sexual harassment prohibitions and grievance, violation, and disposition procedures.

6. The state board of regents shall develop, and direct the institutions under its control to distribute at the time of hiring, registration, admission, or orientation, a guide for employees, students, and patients that describes the applicable sexual harassment prohibitions and grievance, violation, and disposition procedures.

7. This section does not supersede a provision of a collective bargaining agreement negotiated under chapter 20, or the grievance procedures provisions of chapter 20.

8. This section does not supersede the remedies provided under chapter 216.

92 Acts, ch 1086, §3; 2003 Acts, ch 145, §143, 286; 2008 Acts, ch 1031, §98

Referred to in §2.11, 2.42, 602.1401

Section not amended; internal reference change applied