I know it doesn’t make sense and it shouldn’t be allowed to happen but it does, and often, especially when it’s an hourly employee that accuses a salary or other management person. TN is a hire/fire at will state and managers and people in salary have no job security. The hourly people have more power with lawsuits and the company fears them enough that they are cautious most times about terminating them. Companies find it easier to terminate the manager than they do to deal with a lawsuit from an hourly person, or even a salary female. These laws need to be changed to force the accuser to prove his or her accusation and if they can’t, they need to be terminated for bringing a bogus charge.
The law does require evidence of repeated unwelcome behavior of a sexual nature. It is the spineless HR policy of many companies, over-responding to misperceptions of the law, that has created the dysfunctional workplace relations between men and women and, truth be told, not-so-subtle sex discrimination in the hiring of women for many jobs.