Harassment class required for county workers
Prosecuting Attorney Robert Rice
Prosecuting Attorney Robert Rice appeared before the Nodaway County Commission Wednesday to outline plans for mandatory training designed to prevent sexual harassment by county employees and officeholders.
Rice is organizing the training sessions, which will take place in February, in response to a suggestion by County Clerk Beth Walker, who participated in discussions on the issue during a Missouri Association of Counties meeting last year at the Lake of the Ozarks.
Walker told the commission last week that under Missouri law counties without a training program face the potential loss of state funding as a punitive measure should a formal harassment complaint be filed.
Rice is currently assembling materials that will be used during each of three sessions set to take place Feb. 2, Feb. 4 and Feb. 5. All employees and officeholders must attend one of the sessions, which have been scheduled at different times in order to accommodate varying work schedules.
In addition, Rice said, a fourth session will take place at night for late-shift dispatchers and sheriff’s deputies.
Besides the training itself, employees and officeholders will receive a packet of information and will be required to sign a form for their personnel file indicating that they have satisfactorily completed one of the sessions.
New employees will be given a similar packet before starting to work and will be required to affirm in writing that they have reviewed and understood its contents.
After their training is complete, county officials and staff will receive quarterly reminders attached to their pay stubs stating that any form of sexual harassment is unacceptable.
Similar requirements have long been a condition of employment with many public- and private-sector agencies and corporations. Rice said, however, that this is apparently the first time Nodaway County has taken such a step.
“We’re doing this now because it makes us compliant with the law,” he said, “plus, it’s just a plain old good idea.”
Rice said that so far as he knows, no formal allegations of sexual harassment have ever been made against any county employee or officeholder.
However, should such a charge ever be made, the new training requirement will help lessen Nodaway County’s liability under both state and federal law.
Rice said the materials he is now assembling will offer a broad definition of harassment embracing everything from off-color jokes to requests for sexual favors in return for a job or promotion.
“It can be anything that creates a toxic work environment for a particular employee,” he said. “It’s really common sense. It really is. We want to make sure that everyone with the county treats others with respect and dignity.”
Next door to the County Administration Center at City Hall, Human Resources Manager Amy Strough said the city of Maryville also takes steps to educate its employees about sexual harassment and its consequences.
Strough said the topic is addressed in the city’s employee handbook, and that all municipal departments are required to hold sexual harassment prevention presentations annually.
