Sexual Harassment In The Workplace Law Employment Essay

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

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DB414 Personnel Management Assignment

Group members: Adelene Lum Chin Fen DBS11004

Kharine Wijaya DBS11003

Ho Shien Hui DBS11008

Kavindran Krishnan DBS11006

Oon Lin Min DBS10047

Chew Sheng Wen DBS10032

Content Pages

Introduction 1

Statistics of sexual harassment in workplace

Statistics in Malaysia 2

Statistics in Singapore 3 - 4

Statistics in United State of America 5 - 6

Cases of sexual harassment in workplace 7 – 11

Reasons for unreported sexual harassment 12

Causes of sexual harassment in workplace 13

Effects of sexual harassment

Effects on victims 14

Effects on organization 15

Prevention of sexual harassment by law 16

Conclusion 17

Recommendation 18

References 19 – 24

Introduction

Sexual harassment in workplace is legally defined as any unwanted activity of a sexual nature that affects an individual’s employment and creates a hostile work environment (Robbins, 2013). The term sexual harassment however, is vague as there are many kinds of conduct of sexual harassment such as verbal, visual, written and physical. Besides the many kinds of conduct, there are many types of sexual harassment as well. For instance; gender harassment, seductive behaviour, sexual bribery, sexual coercion, psychological harassment and sexual imposition (TWU, 2013).

Gender harassment

Verbally or in written form, making sexist remarks that degrades or insults the attitudes about the victim, either men or women.

Seductive Behaviour

Unwelcome and unwanted sexual advances which are deemed offensive and annoying in nature, such as repeated unwanted dates and sexual advances.

Sexual Bribery

The idea of promising an award or a promotion in exchange of sexual activity or any sexually linked behaviour.

Sexual Coercion

Threatening to face punishment if the victim does not conform to sexual activity or any sexually linked behaviour.

Sexual Imposition

Physical sexual imposition or sexual assault such as feeling or grabbing the victim.

Statistics of Sexual Harassment in Workplace

In Malaysia

Malaysia shows that 40 to as high as 80 percent of women suffer workplace sexual harassment.

· 43% were harassed by a supervisor

· 27% were harassed by an employee senior to them

· 19% were harassed by a co-worker at their level

· 8% were harassed by a junior employee

In 2001, 35% out of 1483 respondents surveyed reported that they had experience sexual harassment in workplace.

22-25% of the victims reported to their supervisors or to Human resource reflecting lack of confidence in the grievance procedure. (Ng, 2007)

Year

Reports on Sexual Harassment in work place

2001

86

2002

84

2003

82

2004

119

2005

102

2006

101

2007

195

Source: Royal Malaysia Police and Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development

In Singapore

More women have entered the workforce in the past years and will be increasing in the coming years ahead. As their numbers increases, their vulnerability to harassment has and also will continue to increase.

In 2008, the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) conducted a survey of workplace sexual harassment in Singapore (AWARE, 2013).

Their study on 500 respondents and 92 companies reported these findings:

Sexual Harassment is common in the Workplace

54% (272) had experienced some form of workplace sexual harassment.

27% of the 272 respondents experienced harassment by their colleague, while 17% were harassed by their superior.

79% of the victims are women; 21% were men.

12% had received threats of termination if they did not comply with the requests of the sexual harassers.

Sexual Harassment in the workplace occurs across the board.

Both women and men are more likely to have been harassed by the opposite sex, although some have also experienced harassment from the same sex. In AWARE’s survey, 79% of the respondents who reported having experienced workplace sexual harassment were female; 21% were male.

Sexual harassment occurs across the board. Most of the harassment is experienced at executive levels, followed by administrative staff. While reports of victimization are fewer, there are incidents of sexual harassment at management and senior management positions.

Awareness of mechanisms for redress within the Workplace

66.6% (333) were not aware of any policies.

50.4% indicated that they were aware of a department or resource person they could approach on sexual harassment.

Industries with high levels of sexual harassment incidents

Business, trade, banking and finance

Sales and marketing

Hospitality

Civil Service

Education, lecturing and teaching

In USA

One in four women had experienced workplace sexual harassment and one in 10 men say they’ve experienced it as well. One forth of men said they are worried about being falsely accused of sexual harassment (Langer, 2011).

Approximately 15,000 sexual harassment cases are reported to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) every year. Based on the EEOC findings, the number of sexual harassment complaints filed by men has more than tripled in recent years. Currently, approximately 11% of claims involve men filing against female supervisors (Risman, 2012).

A telephone poll conducted by Louis Harris and Associates on 782 workers revealed:

• 31% of the female workers claimed to have been harassed at work

• 7% of the male workers claimed to have been harassed at work

• 62% of targets took no action

• 100% of women claimed the harasser was a man

• 59% of men claimed the harasser was a woman

• 41% of men claimed the harasser was another man

Of the women who had been harassed:

• 43% were harassed by a supervisor

• 27% were harassed by an employee senior to them

• 19% were harassed by a co-worker at their level

• 8% were harassed by a junior employee

40-70% of women and 10-20% of men have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace.

In a survey of 9,000 clerical and professional women, 92% of respondents experienced overt physical harassment, sexual remarks and leering, with the majority regarding this behaviour as a serious problem at work.  Nearly 50% said they or someone they knew had quit or been fired because of sexual harassment, and 75% believed that if they complained to a supervisor, nothing would be done.

However, the government's numbers suggest workplace conditions may be improving. The number of claims reported to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been on the decline for more than a decade. In the government's 2010 fiscal year, 11,717 charges were reported, down from 15,889 in fiscal 1997 (Yung and Montemurri, 2011).

Cases of Sexual Harassment in Workplace

Sexual harassment in workplace happens everywhere in the world. Some victims prefer to keep mum and ignore the harassment whereas some decided to report the case and voice out the unwelcome sexual advances. However, complaints made to the higher level management often tend to fall onto deaf ears and are left unresolved. Managers whom are aware of the harassment and did not make any charges against the victimiser will be charged guilty as well.

Most people tend to think that only females get harassed in the workplace. However, males are victimised by females too. It is said that in 2011 alone, 16.3 percent from the charges of sexual harassment in workplace are filed by men. Sexual harassment charges filed by males have been doubled since the past 20 years (Smith, 2013).

As discussed in the formal part, the act of sexual harassment commonly occurs either locally in Malaysia or broadly outside Malaysia. Below are some significant cases that come about in United States and Malaysia.

Hospitality Harassment Case Study

In 1998, Working Woman magazine estimated that sexual harassment cost a typical American Fortune 500 company $6,700,000 per annum in absenteeism, employee turnover, low morale and low productivity (Harvey and Twomey, 1995).

A case study was carried out between one Dublin-based hotel and one Belfast-based hotel. The hotels were not connected in any way, and were chosen owing to their cooperation in the research for this study. The policy statement of the Dublin hotel concentrates mainly on sexual harassment, as was also the case with the results of the analysis of the Labor Court cases. Employees in both hotels often did not distinguish between the issues of bullying and harassment. Hospitality employers in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have not realized the need for training in the area of bullying and harassment. The acting personnel manager in the Belfast hotel admitted that it was an area that is always put "to the bottom of the pile" when it comes to training issues (McMahon, 2000).

Woman Harassed by ex-employee

There was another sexual harassment occurred at the Kolkata, India. A lady complained that she was harassed by a flood of telephone calls from an unknown person with sexual intention. Although the lady changed the telephone number with confidentiality but her neighbours kept receiving the same kind of phone calls that asking for her. This was seriously harassing her family and neighbours. The lady reported the harassment to police. Through the police’s investigation, the lady was being harassed by a man who was the ex-employee with her. The man felt he was not giving proper respect when he worked with the lady. With the unbalanced mind, he admitted that he harassed the lady by sending harassing phone calls (India Cyber Lab, 2012).

Dov Charney VS American Apparel Inc. Employees – Non-verbal harassment

According to The New York Times, a founder of popular clothing chain American Apparel, Dov Charney, the CEO, is known in the fashion industry and beyond as an "unconventional," sexed-up boss. But he could only get away with sleeping with employees and showing up to meetings naked for so long. In 2005, there were three employees filed suit against Charney for sexually harassing them at work by making derogatory comments, giving them sex toys and more. Many have negated the employees' claims, maintaining that the office culture at American Apparel is uniquely lax, and that the company's marketing strategies, designed to attract young and sexy buyers naturally leak into the workplace (HR, 2010).

Female-on-Female Sexual Harassment

Although uncharged and the company insisted that the 2 victims’ complaints were for their own personal gain, manager Krissy DeMonte of The National Association of Professional Women allegedly sexually harassed her two workers by spanking their asses and making lewd remarks (Schram, 2012).

Male-on-Male Sexual Harassment

In 2010, a male supervisor of McDonald’s USA making sexual comments towards as well as physically harassing his teenage male co-worker sexually, caused the company to settle a $50,000 lawsuit (LaSorsa, 2010).

Case on man being harassed - Physical harassment

This case involved sexual harassment lawsuit brought by a male oil rig worker who claimed he was repeatedly harassed by his male co-workers. On several situations, Oncale was subjected to sex-related, humiliating actions, including being sodomized with a bar of soap and was threatened with rape. He brought the harassment to the attention of his supervisors; instead of taking remedial action against the harassers, one of his safety supervisors called him a name. Eventually, Oncale voluntarily left his job due to sexual harassment and verbal abuse. When asked later at a deposition why he quit, he replied that he felt had he not quit his job, he would have been raped or forced to have sex.

In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Title VII’s protection against discrimination in the workplace "because of … sex" applies to harassment between members of the same sex. Additionally, it held that same-sex discrimination can occur not only in situations involving quid pro quo harassment, but also where a hostile work environment has been created (Crawford, 2008).

In 2010, a female manager of Austin Foam Plastic INC. was charged $600,000 by EEOC for making unwelcome sexual advances and physical contact with her male employees. The men also complained that if they accepted her advances, they have better chances of gaining a better employment term (LaSorsa, 2010).

Cases on female playing the victim role - Physical harassment

In September 1994, there is a case at San Francisco Baker & McKenzie secretary Rena Weeks accused her boss of luging at her chest, pouring M&Ms down her breast pocket, and grabbing at her hips. Lastly, she won a jury award of $7.1 million suit against a powerful law firm (Erin, 2012).

Furthermore, in the fall of 2006, Aaron the general manager allegedly snuck up behind Ashley Alford while she was sitting in a stock room and hit her in the head with his penis. Ashley, who worked for an Aaron’s, the store’s general manager, assaulted her after sexually harassing her for a year. This is also one of the cases on a female harassment (Erin, 2012).

Both of the victims reported the actions and behaviors to the lawyer, they were taken on the victim role, and complain that it was their boss who came on to her. Finally they won a huge jury award after claiming a boss masturbated on her.

Besides, one of the most significant cases of sexual harassment is happened in United States in the year of 2001. It occurred between a staff named Gene Hughes with his female colleague, Vicky Crawford. Gene Hughes was hired by the Metropolitan government to examine all claims of discrimination and harassment filed in the area. Vicky Crawford, who worked under Hughes, was harassed by her employer. She was requested from her employer to see her breasts and forcibly pulled her head to his crotch. Crawford made several complain to the higher level but it resulted in no disciplinary action. For the conclusion, Crawford and other female employees who had testified of Hughes’s conduct were fired (U.S Supreme Court, 2008).

In 2002, not one but three female workers at a Ralph’s grocery store in Escondido won a $30 million jury verdict. The store manager allegedly harassed them for a whole year by sexually fondling them (Shickman, 2005).

Malaysia’s Shah Alam female victim of sexual harassment

On November 13, 2008, Mas Anum Samiran, a former personal assistant was driving to Subang Jaya with her boss, Othman Mohamed to pick up balloons ordered for the company’s anniversary. Suddenly he held Samiran’s hand while she was driving. His boss keeps caress her cheek and gave her a "flirting look" in the balloon shop. Besides that, when she pulled her headscarf to cover her undone and exposed chest area, the boss said, he like to see her chest and ask to open for him to see. Moreover, she claimed that Mohamed often made "very personal" calls. Therefore, she was forced to quit her position because of the incident. This harassment was then judged in the Sessions Court and finally, Samiran won the case and was awarded RM 25,000 by her boss (Nurbaiti, 2012).

Reasons Why There Are So Little Unreported Sexual Harassment in Workplace Cases in Malaysia

Sexual Harassment in workplace in Malaysia is often unreported because of a few reasons. Mainly because of our Malaysian culture, we are more conservative and thus it is an embarrassment to file a report telling the public that you have been harassed.

Secondly, the victim may not be ready to face the consequences publicly such as going to court and appearing in headlines.

Besides, the victim is feared of being mocked by the superior, the co-workers as well as the public. If the reports are not taken action against, the victim might be the laughing stock of the company or department for allowing the harasser to take advantage. This harms the victim mentally and emotionally.

Fear of being fired because of reporting is also another factor. The HR management might dismiss the victim for telling the truth as the report might affect the company’s reputation thus sacking the victim is sometimes exercised by unethical managers.

Another reason is that the company itself has no proper complaint procedure for the victim to file a report. When there is no proper channel for victims to complain, they decide to keep quiet and ignore the harassments.

Lastly, it is the lack of confidence of the victim that the HR management will not take action. The victim fears that although report has been made, the HR management will close an eye and no action will be taken. When no action is taken, the victim might risk being threatened if the harasser knows that the victim made a report. The victim’s safety and position will be then in danger. (Prakash, 2007)

Causes of Sexual Harassment in Workplace

The causes to why sexual harassment happens in the workplace are very complicated and a tricky question to tackle. This is because of the complex mixture of socialization factor, office politics and psychology. People who work together in a workplace tends to share similar lifestyles and common interest. Employees seek support from and are dependent on one another. This creates the close rapport needed for teamwork. However, it can lead to peer-to-peer sexual harassment by some co-workers that misunderstood the friendly support.

Employees look up to their employers or supervisors for approval, opportunities and as a success road. On the other hand, employers have the sense of power over his or her employee. With office politics acting as a catalyst, coupled with poor management and workplace bullying, sexual harassment is prone to happen. This is because employers see themselves as superior and that their employees are dependent on them for their rise or fall in the organization so they take advantage of that power and harass the employees.

Besides, personal problems might also be the cause of sexual harassment in the workplace. Problems such as divorce or the death of a family member might trigger that person to want to feel loved or to seek sexual needs from their co-workers or subordinates.

Based on a study in 2009 by sociologists at the University of Minnesota, it is claimed that women with supervisory positions were 137% more prone to being sexually harassed in workplace compared to those without supervisory positions. Being a supervisor will mean having more chances of being harassed however does not apply to male supervisors. Researcher Heather McLaughlin stated that with this study, it shows that males harass women not for the sexual desire but because harassment is used to equalize their power against more superior women (McLaughlin, 2009).

Effects of Sexual Harassment

Different people perceives sexual harassment differently. A man playing with a women’s hair can be perceived as a harassment or a friendly gesture. Thus, sexual harassment reflects different effects of seriousness. Sexual harassment is a type of sexual assault, and victims of severe or chronic sexual harassment can suffer the same psychological effects as rape victims (Work harassment, 2010) and cause seriousness effects such as guilt, shame, shy or even suicide.

In this assignment, the effects of sexual harassment can be divided into two parts which are effects on the victims and effects on the organization.

Effects on the victims

According to Debra Borys, sexual harassment has been linked to sleep disturbance. The victims might experience stress and the anxiety affects the sleeping pattern such as staying to awake at night reminiscing about the sexual harassment events that he/she had experienced (Rettner, 2011).

Sexual harassment also leads the victims to being unable to concentrate on their career and keep on worrying if they will be harassed again anytime. Over-worried will cause the victims performance and work productivity to decline (Work Harassment, 2011).

From the psychological point of view, the most common effects of sexual harassment are high absenteeism. Victims tend to be taking more unpaid leave or medical leave to avoid sexual harassment happen in the workplace or to avoid some person in the organization. Besides that, victims will feel insecure and shameful after the harassment (Work Harassment, 2011).

If the sexual harassment case gets out to the public, victims of harassment will be become the ‘gossip topics’ in the organization. Therefore, sexual harassment causes the victims to feel uncomfortable to work in the surrounding and choose to leave the organization. Moreover, defamation of character and reputation on victims can occur as the harassment case was published to public (Dessler, 2013).

Effects on the organization

Sexual Harassment costs companies money by reducing productivity, morale and motivation of an employee in his/her carrier. If an employee is always concerned that the harasser might attack again, he/she is unlikely to work effectively. (Nolo, 2013)

Company might face losing valuable staffs as many victims will choose to resign rather than go through those confrontations. This might lead the company to experience high turnover, causing high training cost and poor productivity.

Nevertheless, if a company has no clear policy on sexual harassment, it may also be a problem too. Lack of clear definition of unacceptable behaviour would make it easier for a harasser to take the company to court to appeal against disciplinary steps or dismissal. (Western Cape Government, 2012)

If an employee reports against the company for sexual harassment, the company has to bear the lawsuit and pay if proven guilty. It may costs up to millions and this will cost the company dearly.

When the victim is harassed, they will experience withdrawal from work and might change their career goal. For example, the victim is harassed by the manager so the victim will now hate the manager and thus, will not work hard to help achieve the company’s mission and vision. (TWU, 2013)

If the news of the sexual harassment gets out to the public, the company itself will have a bad name and garner negative publicity. This will cause the current and prospective customers and clients to stray away to the competition business. Future staffs might also look elsewhere when applying for a job and this is cause the company to lose possible talented staffs. (Sun, 2012)

Preventing Sexual Harassment in Workplace by law

If employers allow sexual harassment to flourish in the workplace, employers are deemed to have low morale and productivity which may face to settle lawsuit and the affect the organization’s reputation.

There is only one law in Malaysia that comes close to deal with the issue of sexual harassment, which is Penal Code, section 509. The Penal Code, section 509 state that "Whoever, intending to insult the modesty of any women, utters any words, makes any sound or gesture or exhibit any object, intending that such word or sound shall be heard, or such gesture or object shall be seen by such woman, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 5 years or with fine, or with both". This law deals more with physical aspects. Cases of sexual harassment are currently handled by the police and claims are made under the Penal Code, section 509.

However, the Industrial Relations Act 1967 may be changed to provide for action against sexual harassment attackers. The amendment is to restrain sexual harassment. At the same time, the Ministry of Human Resources use its influence to encourage employers to adopt the Code of Practice against sexual harassment and an internal mechanism to prevent sexual harassment at the workplace. The Code of Practise outlines the statement of purpose, legal definition of harassment, and the description behaviour that forms harassment, how employees should manage harassment, how the company takes care of complaints, and what kind of disciplinary action, name and phone numbers to submit a complaint (Ministry of Human Resources, Malaysia, 1999). In Malaysia, however, majority of businesses in Malaysia do not have any form of policy against sexual harassment.

Conclusion

As discussed formerly, study from few researchers have found that sexual harassment can lead to negative effect for individuals as well as organization in both short and long term (Hunt, Davidson, Fielden and Hoel, 2007). Despite leading negative effects such as illness, anger, low self-confidence and psychological damage for individual side, it may also lead to corporate inequality like absenteeism, resignation, decreased job satisfaction and poor job performance (Robinson and Bennett, 1995).

Strategies for prevention the sexual harassment in workplace should be encouraged and enhanced since prevention is better than cure. Thus, Malaysia government together with the employers should adopt, implement and monitor an accessible and effective clear policy in preventing sexual harassment.

In Malaysia, there is only one law dealing with the issues of sexual harassment which is the Penal Code, section 509. However, Industrial Relation Act 1967 is provided against the proprietors who can be used to curb the sexual harassment in the workplace. As to protect employees’ welfare, Ministry of Human Resource encourages employers to implement the Code of Practice against sexual harassment.

Recommendations

Despite the legal action, there are several ways that the HR management can prevent sexual harassment from happening in the workplace. According to Aziz and Ng, 2001, HRM can adopt a clear sexual harassment policy statement in the employee handbook or display copies on noticeboard. With a visible policy statement, prevention of sexual harassment can be preventing effectively.

Besides, HRM should clearly define sexual harassment, explain the seriousness of the sexual harassment and explain what disciplinary action and penalties will be taken once the sexual harassment cases are discovered ( Aziz & Ng, 2001).

The HR management can also carefully scrutinize information on employment application when doing interviews from hiring the wrong persons to work. HR managers are able to check employee’s previous criminal records to prevent hiring someone involved in sexual harassment previously, to join the company. It is a must to take immediate disciplinary action if the sexual harassment occurred. HR managers should take serious action which includes firing or terminating the sexual harasser employment and making police reports.

HRM may train the employees by conducting yearly training sessions or courses for employees. The sessions or courses are conducted to let the employees understand what sexual harassment is and explain about the employees’ right to work at a workplace free of sexual harassment, review the complaint procedure and encourage employees to use it.

Despite giving training to employees, superiors and managers also play a role in preventing sexual harassment. Company should conduct training sessions for supervisors and managers that are separated from the employee sessions. Sessions is conducted to educate the managers and supervisors about sexual harassment and explain how to deal with complaints. With this knowledge, managers can easily handle the cases of sexual harassment.

Based on Northern Territory Government, 2008, HR managers should set up a call center and appoint senior enough employer within the company to investigate and resolve the cases of sexual harassment. With a call center, employees may file any complaints to the company directly before the employees head to out file a complaint with the authorities such as the police or getting a lawyer directly. 4397 words