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What Are the Laws?
The Iowa Civil Rights Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are the two laws that most commonly apply to workplace bullying cases. The existence of a hostile working environment must be established by the totality of the circumstances to rise to a violation of the Iowa Civil Rights Act. Importantly, for workplace bullying to be illegal, the employee must show that she was the target of bullying because of her protected characteristic (the employee’s age, race, color, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, national origin, religion) or because the employee had complained about or opposed illegal discrimination.

In Vaughn v. Ag Processing, Inc., 459 N.W.2d 627, 632 (Iowa 1990), the Supreme Court of Iowa held that a hostile work environment is caused by discriminatory conduct or harassment that has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.

Lynch v. City of Des Moines, 454 N.W.2d 827, 834 (Iowa 1990) was a case in which the Supreme Court of Iowa ruled that when harassment in the workplace is so pervasive  or severe that it creates a hostile or abusive work environment, the harassment affects a condition of employment.

Not all hostile work environments are necessarily pervasive, but they may still be actionable when the action itself is more severe. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has recognized that the more severe the harassment in a hostile work environment claim, the less need to show a repetitive series of incidents.

The Iowa Civil Rights Act 

https://www.legis.iowa.gov/publications/search/document?fq=id:1325916&pdid=1314868&q=iowa+%22civil+rights+act%22#216.1

 

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/title-vii-civil-rights-act-1964