By Trudy Simpson, Staff ReporterTHE BUREAU of Women's Affairs said yesterday it hoped to see documents relating to proposed legislation outlawing sexual harassment in Jamaica being discussed by Parliament before the end of the legislative year, March 2004.
Faith Webster, director of policy and research, said the bureau wants to get sexual harassment on government's agenda by then. However, Dr. Glenda Simms, the bureau's executive director, is fearful the legislation will meet resistance from those who 'benefit' from sexual harassment.
"We want to get it to the stage of the Family Property (Rights of Spouses) Act. From the bureau, we are pushing for it to be on the legislative calendar. It is not a matter of tabling it. We hope for discussion," Mrs. Webster said, during a consultative meeting yesterday to get comments and feedback on a draft policy statement on the proposed sexual harassment Bill.
The Family Property (Rights of Spouses) Bill which has been 12 years in the making, is now before a joint select committee of Parliament. It seeks to provide additional benefits to family members in the event of the death of a spouse or the breakdown of a relationship. Also, it recognises common-law unions above five years.
DEVELOPMENT STAGE
Sexual harassment legislation which is still at the development stage, aims to halt unwelcome and offensive sexual advances, words and gestures against men and women in workplaces and other sectors. It was first recommended over a decade ago but languished until recent years. It would give employees the right to pursue a civil suit against sexual harassers.
The draft policy statement proposes that complainants can file suits on the basis of quid pro quo or the poisoned work environment. Quid pro quo refers to where benefits are conditional on exchange of sexual favours and where refusal leads to dismissal, discipline or promotion prevention.
In the poisoned work environment, the environment becomes unbearable to the victim of harassment because of a pattern of insults and hostility.
Another proposal is for employers to be made liable if they ignore complaints of sexual harassment.
Reading from the draft policy, Sharon Milwood, a legal officer in the Ministry of Justice's Legal Reform Department, said, "Employers will be made liable where, having been informed of allegations of sexual harassment, they fail to take immediate and appropriate action to correct the situation."
APPROPRIATE ACTION
"The employer would not be held liable for the act of sexual harassment by its employees but for failing to take appropriate action," she told the meeting at Bureau of Women's Affairs, Ellesmere Road, in St. Andrew.
However, Ms. Millwood said there would be safeguards to protect both employer and employee from false complaints or victimisation. Where both were proven, it was being recommended that the perpetrator be criminally charged.
If accepted, the legislation would apply not only to governmental and corporate Jamaica work environment but would have "teeth" in children's homes and places of safety, prisons, schools, nursing and senior citizens' homes, health and educational institutions. It would also cover sexual harassment in a tenant/landlord setting; an agent or leasee setting and between two occupants in a residential or business setting.
Participants yesterday suggested the possibility of setting up an ad hoc tribunal for sexual harassment complaints and to have alternative means of resolving complaints to limit the number of cases going to the proposed tribunal. It is proposed that persons have one year in which to file complaints. Others argued that the proposal should cover same sex harassment and state the penalties.
