Filing a Workplace Harassment Complaint in Pennsylvania

Not right away. 43 P.S. Section 962(c)(1) opens the court of common pleas where, within one year after the filing of the complaint, the commission dismisses it or has not entered into a conciliation agreement to which you are a party, and the commission must then notify you. A Pennsylvania complainant who sues at month six has sued too early. Once the closing notice issues, 43 P.S. Section 962(c)(2) allows two years after the date of that notice to file, and requires the court complaint to be served on the commission at the time it is filed, which the commission is required to tell you about.

The state route is at serious risk, but the federal one may not be. 43 P.S. Section 959(j) requires the commission to dismiss with prejudice a complaint which in its opinion is untimely with no grounds for equitable tolling. Two things are worth checking before assuming nothing is left. First, 16 Pa. Code Section 42.14(a) excludes from the 180 day computation any period excludable as a result of waiver, estoppel or equitable tolling, and dates a continuing practice from when it ceased. Second, Pennsylvania is a deferral state, so the EEOC charge deadline is 300 days, which can leave federal runway after the state window closes.

Pennsylvania reaches smaller employers than federal law does. 43 P.S. Section 954(b) defines employer to include the Commonwealth or any political subdivision, board, department, commission or school district, and any person employing four or more persons within the Commonwealth. Federal Title VII needs fifteen. A worker at a five person Pennsylvania company therefore has a state claim and no federal one. Religious, fraternal, charitable and sectarian bodies are generally excluded, but the same subsection brings them back within employer for discrimination based on race, color, age, sex, national origin or non job related handicap or disability, so a religious employer with four or more staff is covered for a sexual harassment claim.

Yes, through a regulation rather than through the statute, and it is worth understanding which. The list in 43 P.S. Section 955(a) dates from 1955 and does not contain the words sexual orientation or gender identity. In 2023 the commission added 16 Pa. Code Chapter 41, Subchapter D, and Section 41.206 construes the term sex as used in the Human Relations Act to include pregnancy, sex assigned at birth, gender including gender identity or gender expression, and affectional or sexual orientation. Anyone reading only the act will conclude there is no protection, which is wrong. The footing is a regulation interpreting the word sex rather than an amended statute, which is a weaker foundation than express statutory text, and that is worth raising with a Pennsylvania employment lawyer.

Often not, and the exclusion is easy to miss because it sits away from the size threshold. 43 P.S. Section 954(c) provides that the term employee does not include any individual employed in agriculture or in the domestic service of any person, any individual who as part of their employment resides in the personal residence of the employer, or any individual employed by that individual's parents, spouse or child. Farmworkers, domestic workers, live in caregivers and people working for a close family member fall outside the Human Relations Act regardless of how many people the employer has. The federal route is a separate question and worth asking about.

The word does not appear in it. The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act prohibits discrimination in the terms, conditions or privileges of employment under 43 P.S. Section 955(a), and harassment claims are built on that language rather than on a section that names harassment. That is the same structure federal harassment law has under Title VII. Practically it means you are describing conduct that altered the terms or conditions of your employment because of a protected characteristic, so record what was said or done, when, who was present, and what changed about your work as a result.