What is covered on the Chicago Sexual Harassment Poster?
The Chicago Sexual Harassment Poster expresses the City’s strict zero tolerance policy against all forms of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment in employment is prohibited by Chicago’s Human Rights Ordinance (C.M.C. 6-10).
Sexual harassment definition
Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favors or conduct of a sexual nature when:
- submission to the conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment, or
- submission to or rejection of the conduct is used as the basis for any employment decision, or
- the conduct substantially interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment, or
- the conduct also involves coercion, abuse of authority, or misuse of an individual’s employment position.
Prohibition of retaliation
An employer is prohibited from retaliating against an employee because the employee complained about sexual harassment, filed a complaint regarding sexual harassment, or participated in an investigation into a sexual harassment complaint.
Reporting sexual harassment
An employee who has experienced sexual harassment can report the situation to:
- their immediate supervisor or another manager
- the employer’s human resources or personnel department
- the Chicago Commission on Human Relations. (Contact information is provided.)
Language requirement
The Chicago Sexual Harassment Poster must be posted in English and Spanish.
Other Chicago sexual harassment compliance responsibilities
In addition to posting the Chicago Sexual Harassment Poster, employers must:
- have a written sexual harassment policy that prohibits sexual harassment and that includes all of the required elements in C.M.C. 6-10-040
- provide the written policy to new hires
- provide sexual harassment prevention training to employees (1 hour/year) and supervisors and managers (2 hours/year)
- provide bystander training to all employees (1 hour/year)
- maintain for a period of 5 years, records of the written sexual harassment policy, trainings given to each employee, and records necessary to demonstrate compliance
- fines for violations range from $500 per offense to $1,000 per offense, and are imposed for each day of a continuing offense