•            July 31, 2024

Senator Murray, Rep. Pressley Reintroduce BE HEARD Act to Protect Workers from Harassment

The BE HEARD Act is comprehensive legislation to prevent workplace harassment, strengthen and expand key protections for workers, and support workers in seeking accountability and justice

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, reintroduced the Bringing an End to Harassment by Enhancing Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination (BE HEARD) in the Workplace Act of 2024. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-07) introduced the bill in the House, along with Congresswomen Sylvia Garcia (D-TX-29), Marilyn Strickland (D-WA-10), and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI-08). This bill takes critical steps to address workplace harassment and ensure workers can seek accountability and justice. Murray first introduced the BE HEARD Act in 2019.

Workers across the country continue to face sexual harassment at work. Women continue to file a disproportionate number of sexual harassment charges, making up nearly 80% of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaints between 2018 and 2021. The continuing epidemic of sexual harassment at work highlights the urgent need to reintroduce the BE HEARD Act.

This legislation includes key reforms including ending mandatory arbitration and pre-employment NDAs to help ensure transparency and expanding civil rights protections for workers—including independent contractors and interns, extending the time limit for reporting and challenging harassment, and ending the tipped minimum wage—a key reform to ensure workers don’t have to endure harassment from customers because their wages depend on tips.

“Whoever you are or wherever you work—everyone deserves to be treated fairly, respectfully, and with dignity at their job,” said Senator Murray. “For far too many employees across the country, going to work still means putting up with sexual harassment and discrimination. For years I have fought for everyone’s right to be free of harassment and discrimination in their workplace, and the BE HEARD Act is critical to ensuring workers get the justice and protections they deserve. I’m so proud to re-introduce my bill alongside my colleagues—because as long as workers continue to face sexual harassment, we will keep demanding better and fighting for change.”

“Every worker should be able to do their job with safety, dignity, and respect. And every worker deserves recourse when faced with discrimination, harassment, or abuse,” said Rep. Pressley. “The BE HEARD in the Workplace Act is deeply personal, and I am proud to put forward a bill that brings us one step closer to ensuring justice and accountability in the workplace. I am grateful to our colleagues, survivors, civil rights lawyers, and community advocates for their partnership on this legislation. Congress must pass this bill without delay because every person, every worker deserves to be heard.”

“Work should be a place where you find fulfillment, not a place you fear. When abusing an employee is the cost of doing business, we have failed as a society,” said Rep. Garcia. “I am proud to be co-leading the BE HEARD in the Workplace Act. Now more than ever, we must do everything we can in Congress to ensure all workers can grow professionally and provide for their families without fear of any abusive behavior or practice in the workplace.”

“I’m proud to stand alongside my colleagues and survivors in reintroducing the Be HEARD Act – not just to update our laws and keep workers safe in the workplace, but to help change the leadership climate and culture that has for too long tolerated harassment and abuse,” said Rep. Slotkin. “For too long, women across industries and backgrounds have been unable to come forward to report harassment or have been met with obstacles and retaliation for demanding their right to work free of harassment or discrimination. Enough.”

“Everyone deserves to be treated fairly and with respect in their workplace,” said Rep. Strickland. “This bill ensures that workers have the tools they need to address workplace harassment.” 

The BE HEARD Act will:

• Strengthen understanding of workplace harassment and help businesses prevent it: The BE HEARD Act invests in research about the economic impact of workplace harassment, requires regular reporting on the prevalence of workplace harassment, and ensures that workers have access to more information and training about what constitutes harassment and their rights if they are harassed. 
• Help ensure transparency: The BE HEARD Act puts an end to mandatory arbitration and pre-employment non-disclosure agreements, which prevent workers from coming forward and holding perpetrators and businesses accountable.
• Broaden and expand civil rights protections to all workers: The BE HEARD Act builds on and strengthens existing civil rights laws by expanding protections for workers, while also safeguarding existing antidiscrimination laws and protections. It strengthens civil rights protections for all workers and makes clear that the Civil Rights Act protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the context of workplace discrimination. It also ensures that no matter where you work—and whether you are an independent contractor or an intern—your rights are protected.
• Empower workers who come forward with reports of harassment or retaliation to ensure they get support: The BE HEARD Act allows workers more time to report harassment, authorizes grants to support legal assistance for workers who have low incomes, invests in delivering more resources to the state level to help workers ensure their rights are protected, and lifts the cap on damages when workers pursue legal action and win their cases.
• Eliminate the tipped wage: The BE HEARD Act eliminates the tipped minimum wage, because tipped workers are disproportionately vulnerable to sexual harassment and discrimination by both clients and supervisors.

In addition to Senator Murray, the Senate bill is co-sponsored by: Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Laphonza Butler (D-CA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Dick Durbin (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

In addition to Reps. Pressley, Garcia, Strickland, and Slotkin, the House bill is co-sponsored by: Representatives John Raymond Garamendi (CA-08), André Carson (IN-07), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (FL-20), Nikema Williams (GA-05), Debbie Dingell (MI-06), Hank Johnson (GA-04), Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Barbara Lee (CA-12), Lori Trahan (MA-03), Delia Ramirez (IL-03), Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25), Julia Brownley (CA-26), Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05), Dan Kildee (MI-08), and Maxine Waters (CA-43).

The legislation has been endorsed by: National Women’s Law Center, Equal Rights Advocates, Women Employed, Economic Policy Institute, American Association of University Women, National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, Justice for Migrant Women, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, National Employment Law Project, Lift Our Voices, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Oxfam America, National Organization for Women, National Partnership for Women & Families, Asset Building Strategies, National Network to End Domestic Violence, YWCA USA, Gender Equality Law Center, National Black Worker Center, California Women’s Law Center, Human Rights Campaign, National Immigration Law Center, Legal Momentum, The Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), FL National Organization for Women (FL NOW), Greater Orlando National Organization for Women (Greater Orlando NOW).

As the former top Democrat on the Senate Labor Committee and a longtime champion of gender equality, Senator Murray has long been a leader when it comes to fighting workplace harassment. In 2018, Murray spearheaded a historic report on how workplace harassment is impacting workers in industries across the country. She pressed the Secretaries of Education, Labor, and HHS under the Trump administration on what they were doing to prevent harassment at their workplaces and pressed trade associations representing industries with some of the highest rates of sexual harassment to be more transparent and accountable. In 2018, Murray led a letter to the NIH director requesting information on how the NIH was working to prevent and address harassment and discrimination among NIH-funded research settings. Murray has continued to conduct oversight over the issue of harassment at the NIH and questioned NIH Director Dr. Monica Bertagnolli on steps being taken to address this at a hearing in May. Murray was also a lead advocate for the confirmation of Kalpana Kotagal and Jocelyn Samuels as EEOC Commissioners, delivering a pro-worker majority on the EEOC for the Biden administration. As a senior member and now Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Murray has consistently fought to increase funding for EEOC, successfully boosting EEOC’s budget by over $75 million since 2019; and worked to secured a $33 million increase in the draft Appropriations bill passed out of Committee last week.

In June 2024, Rep. Pressley renewed her calls for accountability and survivor-focused solutions following the damning reports of a toxic work environment at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).  In November 2021, Rep. Pressley reintroduced the Bringing an End to Harassment by Enhancing Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination (BE HEARD) in the Workplace Act of 2021. It was initially introduced in 2019.

A one-pager of the bill is HERE.

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