For many years, an employer’s liability for workplace harassment under Title VII centered around its own actions through its employees. Since an employee’s working environment is a term or condition of employment, employers have been responsible for hostile work environments created by both supervisors and by an employee’s coworkers. Certainly, employer liability for hostile workplaces under Title VII is neither new nor novel. However, during the past few years, federal circuits have become more open to expanding an employer’s liability under Title VII to include the actions of others — third parties an employer may not control and who are not the employer’s agents.
Employers in a growing number of federal circuits across the country are now exposed to liability to its employees for the actions of third parties such as its customers, vendors, guests and visitors. As such, an employer’s liability to its employees is slowly expanding under Title VII.
