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Attorney General Bondi Leads Bipartisan Coalition of All 56 US AGs Urging Congress to Help Protect Employees from Sexual Harassment

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Attorney General Pam Bondi and North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein are leading a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from every U.S. state and territory urging Congress to end secret, forced arbitration in cases of workplace sexual harassment. Too often employees are required to sign employment contracts containing arbitration agreements mandating that sexual harassment claims be resolved through private arbitration instead of the judicial process. The secrecy surrounding these proceedings can protect serial violators and provide inadequate relief to victims.  

“Decades of private arbitration proceedings regarding sexual harassment have had the unintended consequence of protecting serial violators and it must end,” said Attorney General Bondi. “I am proud to lead this bipartisan coalition of all 56 U.S. attorneys general, along with General Stein, and look forward to the passage of strong federal legislation to help protect employees from workplace sexual harassment.”

The letter sent Monday to leaders in the United States House of Representative and the United States Senate asks Congress to pass appropriately-tailored legislation to ensure that sexual harassment victims have a right to their day in court.

“Congress today has both opportunity and cause to champion the rights of victims of sexual harassment in the workplace by enacting legislation to free them from the injustice of forced arbitration and secrecy when it comes to seeking redress from egregious misconduct condemned by all concerned Americans,” states the letter.

Attorneys general from the states, D.C. and five U.S. territories joined the letter: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.  

It has been a decade since all 56 U.S. Attorneys General have joined a letter to Congress. A copy of the letter is available here. 

Study shows exercise, sleep are keys to keeping employees from bringing home work frustrations

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A brisk walk or a long swim may be the key to preventing a bad day at the office from spilling over into the home.
A recent university study that tracked participants’ sleep patterns and daytime physical movements found employees who recorded an average of more than 10,900 steps each day were less likely to perpetuate abuse at home than those recording fewer than 7,000.
“Research shows employees who are mistreated at work are likely to engage in similar behaviors at home,” said University of Central Florida’s College of Business management professor Shannon Taylor, who teamed up with researchers from Illinois and Wisconsin for the study. “If they’ve been belittled or insulted by a supervisor, they tend to vent their frustration on members of their household. Our study shows that happens because they’re too tired to regulate their behavior.”
The study concludes sleep and exercise are intervention points that can be leveraged to prevent the spread of harmful behavior. Study participants included 118 MBA students with full-time jobs who took a survey and then wore activity monitors for a week. A follow-up survey was then sent to the participants’ cohabitants.
Taylor said the study found that burning an additional 587 calories can reduce the harmful effects of mistreatment and help prevent it from carrying into the home. For the average American man, these gains can be achieved with an hour of swimming or a brisk 90-minute walk.
“The findings are particularly compelling given recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and the American Heart Association to walk between 8,000 and 10,000 steps per day,” Taylor said. “I also think the study gives us a new perspective on the importance of getting an adequate amount of sleep and exercise. It’s not just good for you, it’s good for your spouse, too.”
Taylor is an associate professor and Ph.D. program coordinator in the management department at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. His research examines rude, abusive, and unethical behaviors of employees and leaders. His work has appeared in journals in business and applied psychology and has been featured by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fox News and NPR. He also serves as research director at Knowtro Inc.

Harris Employees Build Oyster Bagging Machine to Improve Indian River Lagoon Health

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harris-corp-brevard-zoo-logos
A group of Harris Corporation employee volunteers answered a call to aid the Indian River Lagoon with a machine that will help restore oyster beds to the endangered waterway.
The employees designed and built a mechanism to funnel shells into oyster bags, which serve as the foundation for new reefs. They donated the machine to the Brevard Zoo’s Oyster Restoration Program.
Volunteers can now fill an oyster bag in eight seconds, when it used to take several minutes by hand. Six volunteers can do the job that previously took a team of 40.
The Brevard Zoo has been working on oyster restoration in the lagoon for more than a decade and has plans to continue the efforts. Oysters are beneficial because their filter feeding improves water quality in the lagoon, which is among the most biodiverse estuaries in North America.
Six Harris employees donated a total of 240 hours to design and build the machine under the company’s volunteering program, which is called Harris Employees Actively Responding Together, or HEART. More than 2,900 employees have donated more than 40,000 hours under the program.
Harris was the first company to join the National Estuary Program’s Indian River Lagoon Innovators and Investors (IRL-I2) network. The company is dedicated to working with governments and groups to help improve the body of water, which stretches for 156 miles along Florida’s East Coast.
Who: Brevard Zoo: Jody Palmer, Director of Conservation
Jake Zehnder, Restoration Project Coordinator
Harris –Tom Campbell, Innovation Director

Employee volunteer team:
Ihosvany Garcia, project lead
Kari Andresen
Scott Cerasale
Chance Eldredge
Julio Perez
Jake Sherlock

What: Media availability to unveil oyster bagging machine designed, built and donated by Harris employees to the Brevard Zoo oyster restoration program. Reporters can interview employees who worked on the project and representatives of Harris and the Brevard Zoo as well as take photos and video of the oyster bagging machine in action.
When: Jan. 13, 2016, 9 a.m.
Where: Oyster shell impound area southwest of the interchange of I-95 and Eau Gallie Blvd. Impound area is remote and requires assistance with entry. All media are asked to meet at the Park-And-Ride lot (~1000 Inspiration Ln. 32934) west of I-95 on Eau Gallie Blvd. so they can be escorted by Zoo staff.
Why: Harris is committed to helping efforts to restore and preserve the Indian River Lagoon and is a member of the IRL-I2 group. The oyster bagging machine is a result of Harris employees taking that commitment to heart and volunteering time and expertise for this important initiative under the able leadership of the Brevard Zoo.
If you plan to attend the event, please RSVP by close of business Wednesday, Jan. 11. 
Harris Corporation
Harris Corporation is a leading technology innovator, solving customers’ toughest mission-critical challenges by providing solutions that connect, inform and protect. Harris supports customers in more than 100 countries and has approximately $7.5 billion in annual revenue and 21,000 employees worldwide. The company is organized into four business segments: Communication Systems, Space and Intelligence Systems, Electronic Systems and Critical Networks. Learn more at harris.com.
Brevard Zoo
Brevard Zoo is home to more than 800 animals representing 180 species from all over the world. As a not-for-profit organization, it is a leader in the fields of animal wellness, education and conservation. More information is available at www.brevardzoo.org.