Nipping the Sexual Harassment Bud
by jansenDo you remember this quote: ¨An apple a day keeps the doctor away¨? Do you remember the wife in a commercial telling the husband to drink his cough syrup to keep from landing in the hospital (Wife: ¨Ano ka, mayaman¨)? Or don´t your loved ones always remind you to bring an umbrella during the rainy season? This is...
Prevention. Prevention. Prevention. We have always said that to prevent sickness, there should be an ounce of prevention. The same is true in the office setting. Why wait till the whole company gets affected?
This is true in cases involving employees and the management. For instance, the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act (RA 7877) imposes a duty on the employer or management to prevent or deter any commission of acts of sexual harassment, one form of women employee abuse, in the workplace. Failure to act after knowing the commission of an offense, shall hold the company for damages arising from the act(s) of sexual harassment.
Un-need Damage Control
Before any such incidence of women employee abuse happens, it is the management´s role to make sure no such thing should ever occurs (or re-occur, if ever). Before there should be a need for damage control that must save the company from possibly being dragged in very public controversies, it is better to plan prevention, to cut the root of the problem.
Management, following the principle of command responsibility, should be the first one to create a good working environment where all employees learn to respect one another. Respect begets respect. They should learn to value one another´s integrity (preventive) and and to look seriously into the matter when it occurs (curative). Doing so not only prevents cases of sexual harassment and/or women employee abuse, but employee abuse in general.
Manager´s Choice
The European Commission Code of Practice (1993) includes the following among the social duties of managers:
To explain and positively promote the policy to their staff;
To ensure a working environment free of visual forms of sexual harassment;
To be alert to any practice of verbal forms of harassment and ready to take necessary action accordingly;
To be responsive and supportive to any member of staff who complains about sexual harassment;
To ensure complete confidentiality in dealing with all cases of sexual harassment;
To ensure full and clear advice on the procedure;
To deal with all cases promptly;
To provide additional appraisal and counseling sessions to staff who have difficulty in accepting or implementing the policy; and
To attend training sessions related to sexual harassment.
In cases of women employee abuse, particularly sexual harassment, the person who has violated a woman´s right is often the boss, someone in a position of authority. It is, therefore, not easy telling the harasser that his behavior is utterly unacceptable and must be stopped immediately. This may require a more sensitive approach, a more well-thought out procedure, given the situation. Still, in the spirit of fairness and for the sake of the company, some things need to be addressed, again, to avoid the need for damage control.
It is significant that all employers and managers deal with each case sensitively and fairly, as required by justice and charity.