Originally Posted by pagemaster

Here is a situation that was brought to my attention.

A new employee who is an assistant manager was recently moved into a new retail store. Once this person started at the is store is was evident that his coworkers and superiors had very open dialoge with this new member. Topics ranged from (homosexual ideolgies, *** life, personal life etc) As this new employee settled into the store, the typical conversation with other store associates typically were among the lines of jokes, innuendos and personal life topics. After about a month at this new store. One member of the staff took offence to a comment this new manager made. This new managers comment was consistent with the topics that were normally talked about since the very first day on the job. The offended person was also clearly previously interested personally with the new manager but the new manager was not interested in the person. The manager was accused of pinching the this person who complained. It was revealed on camera that this did not occur.

Human resources became involved and determined that partly the environment has made in uncomfortable for the new manager to work and transfered the new manager about one and half weeks after the incident. Furthermore, about a 3 weeks after the investigation started and two after the transfer the manager was given a written warning that the managers behavior was harrassment and several members of the store took offence. The accussed was told that he did not lose his job because the environment was partly to blame and partly caused his behevior. The accussed was also informed by a superior that he the official reason for his transfer was that the store could not support his salary.

Need some advice here.

What are the legal opinions in this situation?
In any was is this person wrongly accused of harrassment?