Workplace sexual assault is unwanted sexual contact by someone you met through work, such as a supervisor, coworker, client or professional. In California it can support a civil claim against the person responsible and, in many cases, against the employer, separate from any criminal case. Deadlines apply, and some older claims may remain open.
People who look this up are often trying to answer a few quiet questions at once: whether what happened has a legal name, whether the employer has any responsibility for it, and whether it is already too late. Many have not told anyone. Reading about the law commits a person to nothing, and none of what follows asks anything of the reader.
Justice for Survivors focuses on civil claims for sexual abuse and sexual assault in California, including claims against the institutions and employers that put a perpetrator in a position of trust or failed to act on warning signs. This article explains how those claims work when the assault happened in a work setting: the legal categories, how employer liability works, the deadlines, what a civil case can seek, and where confidential support is available.
What Workplace Sexual Assault Means Under California Law
Two legal categories tend to overlap here, and it helps to separate them.
Sexual assault and sexual battery. California's criminal sexual battery statute, Penal Code section 243.4, describes touching an intimate part of another person against their will for a sexual purpose, including where the person is restrained, is medically incapacitated in a treatment setting, or was misled into believing the touching served a professional purpose. In plain terms: unwanted sexual touching. Rape and other offenses are defined in separate criminal statutes. The same conduct that is a crime can also be the basis for a civil claim for money damages, often called sexual battery or assault in the civil context.
Sexual harassment in employment. Government Code section 12940 is part of FEHA (the Fair Employment and Housing Act, California's main workplace anti-discrimination law). FEHA treats sexual harassment as an unlawful employment practice. Harassment is broader than assault: it can include words, images and conduct, not only physical contact. A single severe physical incident can be both a crime and the basis of a civil employment claim. FEHA is enforced by the California Civil Rights Department (CRD, formerly called the DFEH).
Professional relationships. Civil Code section 51.9 creates a civil claim for sexual harassment within a business, service or professional relationship. The statute names examples including physicians, psychotherapists, dentists, attorneys, teachers, landlords, elected officials, and directors or producers, plus relationships "substantially similar" to these. It matters in work-adjacent situations where the person with power over the survivor was not technically their employer.
The criminal system and the civil system are separate tracks. Each is explained below. This site does not cover general hostile-work-environment claims that involve no sexual assault; those belong to employment law more broadly.
How California Law Holds Employers Responsible
An employer can be responsible for a sexual assault it did not commit. The question is usually who the perpetrator was in relation to the survivor.
When the perpetrator is a supervisor. Under FEHA, an employer is generally strictly liable for sexual harassment by a supervisor. Strict liability means the employer is responsible even if it says it did not know. A supervisor's position of authority is treated as part of the employer's own conduct.
When the perpetrator is a coworker, client or customer. Here a negligence standard generally applies. The employer is liable if it knew or should have known about the conduct and failed to take prompt, appropriate corrective action. "Should have known" means the warning signs were there for a reasonable employer to see: earlier complaints, a known history, or behavior that management witnessed and ignored.
The duty to prevent and correct. FEHA also makes it unlawful for an employer to fail to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment from occurring. In practice that means policies, training, a real reporting channel, and a prompt, fair investigation when a report is made.
Institutional failure theories. Beyond FEHA, a civil sexual assault claim against an employer can rest on negligent hiring (hiring someone the employer knew or should have known was dangerous), negligent supervision (failing to watch over someone who needed it), and negligent retention (keeping someone on after learning of the risk). These are the same theories used against schools, churches and other organizations in institutional sexual abuse cases.
Retaliation. FEHA also makes it unlawful for an employer to retaliate against an employee for reporting or opposing harassment, or for taking part in an investigation or proceeding about it. Retaliation can include firing, demotion, a schedule change, or a sudden shift in how someone is treated.
The Difference Between a Civil Claim and a Criminal Report
These two tracks run independently, and a survivor can choose one, both or neither.
In the criminal track, law enforcement investigates and a district attorney decides whether to file charges under statutes such as sexual battery or rape. The survivor is a witness. The State brings the case, and the goal is punishment, such as jail or probation. Guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
In the civil track, the survivor is the party bringing the case. Depending on the claim, it begins with a complaint to the CRD or a lawsuit filed directly in court. The goal is compensation and, sometimes, changes to how the employer operates. The standard of proof is lower: a preponderance of the evidence, meaning "more likely than not."
A civil claim does not depend on a police report, an arrest, criminal charges, or a conviction. A case that was never prosecuted, or that ended in acquittal, can still be pursued civilly. More on the distinction appears in our guide to civil versus criminal cases.