US Supreme Court ruled that an employee is a “supervisor” under Title VII only when empowered by the employer to take tangible employment action.
The question of who is a “supervisor” brings more to bear on the employer / owner than you may think. Remember it is those who supervise others who (a) are considered in their actions to be representing the company; ( b) speak on the company’s behalf; and (c) just by their actions can create liability for your company due to a hostile work environment in your restaurant. Hence, this designation is very important! We need to be sure that the employees who we identify to our staff as “supervisors” are in fact prepared for this job, are trained for the job, and understand their enhanced responsibilities.
An employee is a “supervisor” for the purposes of vicarious liability under Title VII only if he or she is empowered by the employer to take tangible employment actions against the alleged victim; i.e. the power to hire, fire, demote, promote, transfer, or discipline. The EEOC had argued that anyone who exercised “significant direction” over another’s daily work held supervisor status. The US Supreme Court clarified this definition – and it is greatly in our favor.
Consider this: a “part-time” manager in your restaurant makes inappropriate comments to a server. This part-timer has been cloaked by you with authority to discipline employees just so they will have sufficient clout to properly manage the other employees in your restaurant. Server quits and sues. During litigation proceedings you are asked for a complete list of training that has been provided to this “manager”. You don’t have training information for this individual who fills in sometimes for management because s/he is considered part-time. If this part-time manager otherwise fits the description outlined by the Supreme Court – you cannot use the defense of him/her being part-time. They are, in the courts’ eyes, a supervisor. Make sure that you have clearly identified who the supervisors are in your restaurant and then ensure that all necessary training is provided to those who are actually considered “supervisors”.