A recent Seventh Circuit case clarifies employers' responsibilities with respect to maintaining effective internal complaint procedures for reporting harassment and unlawful discrimination. In E.E.O.C. v. V & J Foods, a teenage fast-food restaurant worker brought claims against her employer alleging a hostile work environment, sex discrimination and retaliation. The district court granted summary judgment on the hostile work environment claim on the grounds that the teenage employee failed to activate the mechanism which the Company had implemented for reporting harassment.

The Seventh Circuit reversed the district court's decision, finding that the reporting mechanism that the employer had in place was not reasonable. The court reasoned that "what is reasonable depends on the employment circumstances and therefore, among other things, on the capabilities of the class of employees in question." In the opinion, the court noted that V & J employed many teenage employees in its restaurants and that the mechanism in place was too complicated for the average teenager to have known how to utilize it. As a result, it was not reasonable and could not serve as a defense.

The Seventh Circuit found that while employers are not required to tailor complaint procedures to the competence of each individual employee, when an employer has a certain population in its workforce, the employer is obligated to suit its procedures to the understanding of the average individual in that population. For example, the court suggested that if an employer has a significant Spanish-speaking population in its workforce, it must ensure that those individuals understand how to utilize the mechanisms and procedures for reporting harassment and unlawful discrimination, potentially requiring the employer to post signs regarding reporting harassment and unlawful discrimination in both English and Spanish.

This case stands as a stark reminder that in order to claim certain defenses to harassment allegations, employers are responsible for creating a clear path for complaints of harassment, discrimination and retaliation. If this path does not match the capabilities of its employees, it may subject the employer to liability.