[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Village of New York Mills 9-8-1998. Amendments noted where applicable.]
Sexual harassment is a form of gender discrimination and is a violation of state and federal civil rights laws. It is the policy of this municipality to strongly oppose and prevent any form of discrimination. We recognize that any employee's ability to perform his or her job may be adversely affected by harassment based on sex. Therefore, this policy has been prepared to aid our employees in understanding and helping to prevent sexual harassment.
A. 
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines "sexual harassment" as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:
(1) 
Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment;
(2) 
Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions, such as promotion, transfer, or termination, affecting such individual; or
(3) 
Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or otherwise offensive working environment.
B. 
Sexual harassment can include abusive verbal language related to an employee's sex, sexually oriented comments about an individual's body that are unwelcome and/or reasonably interfere with an employee's work performance or create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment; displays of obscene printed or visual material; and physical contact, such that it unreasonably interferes with an employee's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.
Any employee who believes that another employee is initiating sexual harassment shall file a written complaint with the New York Mills Village Clerk, One Maple Street, New York Mills, New York 13417, within 30 calendar days of the incident. Retaliation against the complainant will not be tolerated. Due to the serious and private nature of this offense, false accusations of sexual harassment are and will be treated as a disciplinary offense and will result in the same level of punishment as that applied to one who engages in such behavior.
The policy of the Village of New York Mills is to investigate all such complaints. If an investigation confirms that harassment has occurred, the Village of New York Mills will take corrective action, including any discipline that is appropriate, up to and including immediate termination of employment.
This directive is for municipal use only and does not apply in any criminal or civil proceeding. The municipal policy shall not be construed as a creation of a higher legal standard of safety or care in an evidential sense with respect to third-party claims. Violations of this directive will only form the basis for municipal administrative sanctions. Violations of law will form the basis for civil and criminal sanctions in a recognized judicial setting.