5-11-002 Prohibited Conduct

The following conduct is expressly prohibited in the Tribe’s workplace. Employees who engage in such conduct may be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment with the Tribe.

(1) Discrimination. It is a violation of this policy to discriminate in the provision of employment opportunities, benefits or privileges, to create discriminatory work conditions, or to use discriminatory evaluative standards in employment if the basis of that discriminatory treatment is, in whole or in part, the person’s race, color, national origin, age, religion, disability status, gender, sexual orientation, body, appearance, or marital status.

(2) Bullying and Harassment. Bullying and harassment is prohibited. The definition of “bullying and harassment” is: verbal or physical conduct designed to threaten, intimidate, coerce or significantly and unreasonably impair another person’s personal or professional morale. This may include verbal taunting (including racial and ethnic slurs) which, in the employee’s opinion, impairs his or her ability to perform his or her job. Examples of bullying and/or harassment include:

(a) Verbal. Negative comments regarding any person’s nationality, origin, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, body, pregnancy, disability, or appearance, epithets, slurs, and negative stereotyping.

(b) Nonverbal. Distribution, display or discussion of any written or graphic material that ridicules, denigrates, insults, belittles, or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual or group because of national origin, race, color, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy, appearance, disability, body, marital or other protected status; physically aggressive actions.

(a) The Tribe will strictly enforce sexual harassment policies at all levels within the workplace. Sexual harassment is unacceptable in the workplace, in work-related settings such as business trips and business-related social events, or wherever an employee is subject to the conduct prohibited by this policy. If an employee is subject to prohibited sexual harassment, whether or not such conduct occurs at work or during working hours, the affected employee is urged to immediately notify designated Tribe personnel. When it is believed that sexually harassing conduct poses a threat of danger, or is possibly criminal, the affected employee should contact law enforcement authorities in addition to Tribe personnel. Retaliation against a reporter of sexual harassment is expressly prohibited in order to encourage the expeditious and complete reporting of such suspected conduct.

(b) Everyone benefits from the reporting of sexual harassment. Where a sexually hostile work environment has been found to exist, the Tribe will take appropriate steps to eliminate the conduct creating such an environment. Occasional misunderstandings may occur, but such mistakes will not subject the reporter or those who have cooperated with the investigation to any sanctions. Only if the Tribe determines that a complaint is made with knowledge that is false, any employee involved in such malicious behavior will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination.

(c) Sexual Harassment Defined. For purposes of this policy, “sexual harassment” is defined as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors or other verbal or physical acts of a sexual or sex-based nature, where:

(i) Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment; or

(ii) An employment decision affecting an employee is either explicitly or implicitly based on that individual’s acceptance or rejection of such conduct; or

(iii) Such conduct interferes with an employee’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.

(d) Prohibited Conduct. Prohibited acts of sexual harassment can take a variety of forms ranging from subtle pressure for sexual activity to actual physical contact of a sexual nature. The following behaviors are unacceptable and therefore prohibited, even if not unlawful in and of themselves. Examples of conduct which could be considered sexual harassment and which are prohibited include, but are not limited to:

(i) Repeated and unwelcome flirting, pressure for dates, sexual comments or touching;

(ii) Sexually suggestive jokes, gestures, remarks, or degrading comments whether directed toward, about or in the presence of another;

(iii) Express or implied promises or threats to affect the circumstances of a person’s employment, conditioned upon that person’s willingness to submit to dating or sexual involvement with an employee;

(iv) Sexually oriented or suggestive pictures, objects, posters, or offensive material which may be accessed by others either by display or inadvertence;

(v) Retaliation against an individual for reporting or complaining about suspected sexually harassing conduct;

(vi) The inappropriate use of language containing either sexual terms or epithets;

(vii) Verbal comments about an individual’s body which could be construed as a sexual remark, whether complementary or degrading;

(viii) Intentional physical contact, such as touching, pinching, patting, grabbing, rubbing, brushing against another employee, or poking another employee’s body which could be reasonably construed as sexual in nature;

(ix) All examples of prohibited contact apply not only to the spoken word, but to emails, text messages, tweets and other social media posts.

(e) Individuals Covered Under This Policy. This policy covers all employees of the Tribe. Upon notice by an employee, the Tribe will also investigate and remediate sexual harassment occasioned by any other person associated with the Tribe, including, but not limited to, employees, contractors, vendors, volunteers, tenants, or other personnel over whom the Tribe has control.

(f) Complaint Process. Disciplinary action will be taken against any employee found to have violated this Sexual Harassment Policy. Personnel who provide false or misleading information, who retaliate against a reporter, or who otherwise impede a harassment investigation subject him or herself to disciplinary action up to and including termination.

(4) Malicious Gossip. Malicious gossip is prohibited in the workplace. The definition of “malicious gossip” is communication between two or more individuals regarding another person or persons, which is not directly related to either communicators’ employment responsibilities and is intended to, or is likely to (regardless of intent), negatively impact the person or persons being discussed, whether the injury would be to their professional standing, emotional well-being, family well-being, or reputation. Malicious gossip may or may not also constitute a breach of confidentiality, depending on the circumstances. Communications directly related to carrying out an employee’s work responsibilities are not malicious gossip.

(5) Retaliation. The Tribe hereby prohibits any adverse personnel action for:

(a) Telling any other employee, in an appropriate manner, that their behavior may violate this Productive Workplace Policy; and/or

(b) Filing or responding to a bona fide complaint of a violation of the Productive Workplace Policy;

(d) Serving as an appointed investigator. [Res. 2022-10-016 § 1, 2022.]