August 06, 2024

Wyden, Merkley Join Bill to Protect Workers from Harassment

Legislation Would Prevent Workplace Harassment, Strengthen and Expand Key Protections For Workers, Support Workers in Seeking Accountability And Justice

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley said today they have joined the reintroduction of a bill that would address workplace harassment and ensure workers can seek accountability and justice.

Workers across the country continue to face sexual harassment at work. Women file a disproportionate number of sexual harassment charges, making up nearly 80 percent of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints between 2018 and 2021.

This Bringing an End to Harassment by Enhancing Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination (BE HEARD) in the Workplace Act of 2024 includes key reforms to address the continuing epidemic of sexual harassment at work. The bill includes provisions to end mandatory arbitration and pre-employment non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to help ensure transparency, as well as expansions of civil rights protections for workers, including independent contractors and interns. It would also extend the time limit for reporting and challenging harassment and end the tipped minimum wage—a key reform to ensure workers don’t have to endure harassment from customers because their wages depend on tips.

“Workers who try to report harassment are all too often brushed off by higher-ups as the cost of doing business,” Wyden said. “Workplaces in America should be safe places for workers to innovate and excel – not places of harassment, degradation, or fear. This legislation would bring us one step closer to protecting our nation’s workforce and making sure all conduct cases are done by the books.”

“Discrimination, harassment, and abuse are never acceptable,” Merkley said. “No worker should have to fear they won’t be heard for reporting mistreatment in the workplace. We must take critical steps to ensure justice and accountability for workers in Oregon and across America” 

The BE HEARD Act would:

  • Strengthen understanding of workplace harassment and help businesses prevent it: The BE HEARD Act invests in research about the economic impact of workplace harassment, requires regular reporting on the prevalence of workplace harassment, and ensures workers have access to more information and training about what constitutes harassment and their rights if they are harassed. 
  • Help ensure transparency: The BE HEARD Act puts an end to mandatory arbitration and pre-employment non-disclosure agreements, which prevent workers from coming forward and holding perpetrators and businesses accountable.
  • Broaden and expand civil rights protections to all workers: The BE HEARD Act builds on and strengthens existing civil rights laws by expanding protections for workers, while also safeguarding existing antidiscrimination laws and protections. It strengthens civil rights protections for all workers and makes clear the Civil Rights Act protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the context of workplace discrimination. It also ensures that no matter where someone works—and whether they are an independent contractor or an intern—their rights are protected.
  • Empower workers who come forward with reports of harassment or retaliation to ensure they get support: The BE HEARD Act allows workers more time to report harassment, authorizes grants to support legal assistance for workers who have low incomes, invests in delivering more resources to the state level to help workers ensure their rights are protected, and lifts the cap on damages when workers pursue legal action and win their cases.
  • Eliminate the tipped wage: The BE HEARD Act eliminates the tipped minimum wage, because tipped workers are disproportionately vulnerable to sexual harassment and discrimination by both clients and supervisors.

Alongside Wyden and Merkley, the bill led by Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is cosponsored by Senators Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai’i), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.,), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Companion legislation in the House of Representatives is sponsored by Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and cosponsored by Representatives John Raymond Garamendi (D-Calif.), André Carson (D-Ind.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fl.), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)

The legislation has been endorsed by National Women’s Law Center, Equal Rights Advocates, Women Employed, Economic Policy Institute, American Association of University Women, National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, Justice for Migrant Women, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, National Employment Law Project, Lift Our Voices, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Oxfam America, National Organization for Women, National Partnership for Women & Families, Asset Building Strategies, National Network to End Domestic Violence, YWCA USA, Gender Equality Law Center, National Black Worker Center, California Women’s Law Center, Human Rights Campaign, National Immigration Law Center, Legal Momentum, The Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), FL National Organization for Women (FL NOW), and Greater Orlando National Organization for Women (Greater Orlando NOW).

A one-pager of the bill is here. The text of the bill is here.