Sexual harassment in the workplace is an unwelcome or unwanted attention of a sexual nature from someone at a work place that causes discomfort, humiliation, offence or distress, and / or interferes with the job. This includes all such actions and practices of a sexual nature by a person or a group of people directed at one or more workers.
Sexual Harassment takes place if a person:
- Subjects another person to an unwelcome act of physical intimacy, like grabbing, brushing, touching, pinching etc.
- Makes an unwelcome demand or request (whether directly or by implication) for sexual favours from another person, and further makes it a condition for employment/payment of wages/increment/promotion etc.
- Makes an unwelcome remark with sexual connotations, like sexually explicit compliments/cracking inappropriate jokes with sexual connotations/ making sexist remarks etc.
- Shows a person any sexually explicit visual material, in the form of pictures/cartoons/pinups/ calendars/screen savers on computers/any offensive written material/pornographic e-mails, etc.
- Engages in any other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, which could be verbal, or even non-verbal, like staring to make the other person uncomfortable, making offensive gesture kissing sounds, etc.
Addressing Employee Sexual Harassment Complaint
When an employee complains to a supervisor, another employee, or the Human Resources office, about sexual harassment, an immediate investigation of the charge should occur. Supervisors should immediately involve the Human Resources staff.
In the existing cultural environment, many accusations of past sexual harassment up to and including rape have been leveled at prominent people. They bear commonalities. Frequently, the abuser is a man with a powerful position from which he can negatively affect the careers of those who refuse the harasser’s requests.
Secondly, for a variety of reasons, the harassed individuals have not requested help from the HR departments or managers of these powerful people. Hopefully, the result of these people coming forward will be to discourage sexual harassment in workplaces. Note also, though, that while the current charges are truly egregious, all workplace sexual harassment is morally, ethically, and legally wrong—no matter the scale of the accusations.
Sexual Harassment Policies
Your employee policy handbook needs the following policies:
- Sexual Harassment Policy
- General Harassment Policy
- Policy about how sexual harassment (and other harassment allegations) investigations are conducted in your company
- A policy that forbids an employee in a supervisory role from dating a reporting employee and that details the steps required should a relationship form
Workplace non-fraternization policies need to recognize that the workplace is one of the logical locations for people to meet and fall in love, as long as the employees engaged in the relationship follow common-sense guidelines.
Points to Remember for Sexual Harassment
As you think about sexual harassment and other forms of harassment in your workplace, keep these facts in mind.
- The employee harassing another employee can be an individual of the same sex. Sexual harassment does not imply that the perpetrator is of the opposite sex.
- The harasser can be the employee’s supervisor, manager, customer, coworker, supplier, peer, or vendor. Any individual who is connected to the employee’s work environment can be accused of sexual harassment.
- The victim of sexual harassment is not just the employee who is the target of the harassment. Other employees who observe or learn about sexual harassment can also be the victims and institute charges. Anyone who is affected by the conduct can potentially complain of sexual harassment. For example, if a supervisor is engaged in a sexual relationship with a reporting staff member, other staff can claim harassment if they believe the supervisor treated his or her lover differently than they were treated.23
- In the organization’s sexual harassment policy, advise the potential victims that, if they experience harassment, they should tell the perpetrator to stop, that the advances or other unwanted behaviors are unwelcome.
- Sexual harassment can occur even when the complainant cannot demonstrate any adverse impact on his or her employment including transfers, discharge, salary decreases, and so on.
- When an individual experiences sexual harassment, they should use the complaint system and recommended procedures as spelled out in the sexual harassment policy of their employer. The investigation should be conducted as spelled out in the handbook.
- The employer has the responsibility to take each complaint of sexual harassment seriously and investigate.
- Following the investigation of the harassment complaint, no retaliation is permitted, regardless of the outcome of the investigation. The employer must in no way treat the employee who filed the complaint differently than other employees are treated nor change his or her prior-to-the-complaint treatment.
