Can an employee who is wrongfully classified as a contractor sue for harassment?

Regardless of the way your employer decides to classify you, whether you are really an independent contractor depends on whether you pass the an "economic realities" test used by the Department of Labor. The economic realities test looks at whether a worker is economically dependent on the employer, or is a true independent contractor, in business for himself. Although there is no single, comprehensive list of all the factors that should be considered in every single case (since each case can be very different), the following factors are almost always considered: 1) The extent to which the work performed is an integral part of the employer's business, 2) Whether the worker's managerial skills affect his or her opportunity for profit and loss, 3) The relative investments in facilities and equipment by the worker and the employer, 4) The worker's skill and initiative, 5) The permanency of the worker's relationship with the employer., and 6) The nature and degree of control by the employer. You can get more information about these factors, and about the economic realities test, at the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division website: https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance. In particular, the fact sheet at https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs13.htm will help. In addition, sexual harassment is considered to be a type of sex discrimination, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits sex discrimination, applies to both employees and independent contractors. This kind of harassment can be either "quid pro quo" sexual harassment or "hostile work environment." "Quid pro quo" sexual harassment means that your supervisor (or someone else in authority) pressures an employee to engage in a sexual and/or romantic relationship in exchange for a raise, a promotion, or some other benefit. "Hostile Work Environment" harassment means that an employee is subjected to hostility, intimidation, and/or ridicule based on the employee's sex. In either case, the victim is being subjected to "terms and conditions of employment" that are "less favorable than those afforded to similarly situated employees" who are "not in the protected group," (i.e., in most cases, the opposite sex). In the case of sexual harassment, the "terms and conditions of employment" consist of the actual acts of harassment to which you are subjected. It's important to keep in mind, though, that not everything that's rude, annoying, or mildly embarrassing automatically qualifies as "harassment." The conduct must be "sufficiently severe or pervasive" that it creates a hostile work environment. In other words, it "alters the conditions of employment" in a negative way. Whether particular conduct meets that test is very fact sensitive. It's also important that the victim of sexual harassment has taken the appropriate action in response. That's because Title VII doesn't allow you to sue your fellow employees. Your only option is to sue your employer, and you can only do that if the harassment is either perpetrated by a supervisor, manager, or some other person in authority (as it appears to be in your case), or if the harassment is carried out by a co-worker, you have reported it to management, and management has done nothing to make it stop. You need to discuss your situation with an employment law attorney as soon as possible.