Legal Question in Sexual Harassment in Texas

ADA protection of sexual harrassment charges

Is an employee protected from being terminated or for sexual harrassment under the Americans with Disability Act?


Asked on 1/22/03, 11:47 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Roger Evans Mathis & Donheiser

Re: ADA protection of sexual harrassment charges

While I am a little uncertain of the import of your question, I am reading it as seeking guidance as to whether certain non-discrimination provisions can "protect" you from adverse employment action for unrelated conduct. The Americans with Disabilities Act protects you from discriminatroy treatment, including the failure reasonably to accomodate a recognized disability, in connection with your employment. Generally speaking, absent a written employment contract, an employer in Texas can terminate an employee for any reason whatsoever, or no reason at all, as long as it is not motivated by discrimination in violation of state or federal protection for certain groups of people, including the disabled.

Thus, if you were terminated for sexual harassment, and not because of your disability, you would not be protected from termination. I can imagine a possible situation where you could allege your disability caused you to sexually harass someone, but that remote circumstance is the only one that occurs to me as possibly providing a connection betweeen an employer's legitimate response to sexuallly harassing conduct and a disability.

If your question means--and again I apologize because it is not completely clear to me that you are questioning the situation addressed above, but may be asking if you are protected from sexual harassment by the ADA----the answer is no, that protection comes from other state and federal statutes.

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Answered on 1/22/03, 12:53 pm


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