Page 1 Previous Page Next Page Page 1 of 5 Employment Discrimination Rustbelt HWE and Liability MC Page 2 Rustbelt is a company that rents and sells construction equipment. It hired Cope to work in one of its stores. Cope worked in close quarters with several other Rustbelt employees. Prior to joining Rustbelt, Cope converted to Islam. Rustbelt and all of the Cope's coworkers knew that Cope was a Muslim. Cope observed the tenets of 191 his faith at the workplace by keeping a beard and wearing a kufi, a traditiona arrived at work, Cope's Page 3 : coworkers made comments like "good morning towel head." They made fun of his appearance. challenged his allegiance to the United States, suggested he was a more than one occasion one of his co-workers held his arms behind his back as Page 4 : another acted like he was going to forcibly remove Cope's kufi. Because of the way he was treated by his co-workers, Cope became unable to continue to work. Cope filed a lawsuit against Rustbelt. The issue is whether his co-workers engaged in unlawful harassment by creating a hostile work environment and, if so, whether Page s. Rustbelt is liable for that harassment. Question 1 (5 points) Harassment that creates a hostile work environment must be sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the condition of the victim's employment and create an abusive working environment. Which of the facts given is relevant to the question of whether the co-workers' conduct was severe? On more than one occasion one of his co-workers held his arms behind his back as another acted like he was going to forcibly remove Cope's kufi. All of the Cope's coworkers new that Cope was a Muslim. Everyday when he arrived at work, Cope's coworkers made comments like "good morning towel head." Question 2 (5 points) Harassment that creates a hostile work environment must be sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the condition of the victim's employment and create an abusive working environment. Which of the facts given is relevant to the question of whether the co-workers' conduct was pervasive? All of the Cope's coworkers knew that Cope was a Muslim. On more than one occasion o co-workers held his arms behind his back as another acted like he was going to forcibly remove Cope's kufi. Everyday when he arrived at work, Cope's coworkers made comments like "good morning towel head." Question 3 (5 points) Which of the following is the best statement of the legal rule that will be used by of this question that the action did create a hostile work environ assume for purposes Strict Liability. If there is a hostile work environment, Rustbelt is automatically liable. There is a presumption of liability, but Rustbelt can avoid liability by establishing that it had preventative measures in place and the employee failed to take advantage of them. Negligence. Rustbelt is liable if it knew or should have known about the harassment and failed to take immediate remedial action. Question 4 (5 points) How would the outcome of this case have been impacted if the supervisor had arranged for all of the employees at this site to have training about employment discrimination and unlawful harassment? The employer is less likely to be held liable, because it was taking immediate remedial action. The employer would still be held strictly liable for the harassment that had occurred previous to that date. The employer is more likely to be held liable, because the supervisor would have been acknowledging the problem by arranging for the training