An employee of a Sears Home Improvement Products store in Natomas was recently awarded $5.2 million in Sacramento County Court two years after he alleged that Sears condoned the racist behavior and harassment of other employers. As these cases often do, this instance raises questions about the extent to which employers are supposed to be able to control the actions of their employees.

One key incident to the employee's claims of racial harassment happened at a company barbecue in August 2008. The employee, who is black, had attended with his family and would later say he was humiliated when a coworker came up to him and started speaking in a "slave dialect" and uttered a racial slur.

Now, conduct like that is not acceptable. But the bigger issue was the plaintiff's claim that Sears managers acted "with malice, oppression or fraud" by not investigating the employee's report of the incident and other racist occurrences. The man's attorney said Sears did not want to investigate the particular incident at the barbecue because the coworker who performed the racist conduct was a top sales producer nationally.

A spokesperson for Sears said the company was disappointed with the outcome and is "exploring all of its pre-trial options," which would include appeal. The employee who uttered the racial slur at the barbecue no longer works for Sears.

All of us can agree that racist behavior is not acceptable. But a company can stress this fact to its employees over and over again and still not be able to ensure a work environment that is 100 percent free of offense of any kind. Many employers choose to work with employment law attorneys to make sure they protect themselves as best they can against this kind of claim.

Source: The Sacramento Bee, "Sears employee wins $5.2 million jury award for racial harassment," Loretta Kalb, Oct. 26, 2011