1.0 Edaran Communication SB lwn Tahar Mohamed (1998) 3 ILR 487 The accused was terminated from his position in the company due to his immoral acts toward his subordinate female workers. According to the Company Second Witness (C2W) who is an officer cleaner, the accused has been harassing her from February until March 1997. The accused has touched her on her shoulder and constantly asking her to go out for a date. However, C2W rejected the invitation every time he asked her and that led to the constant invitations by the accused. In another occasion, C2W was asked by the accused to clean a room in the office was later she found out it do not need to be cleaned. Later, the accused pull her arm and asked her to sit but victim freaked out and leave the room. In the last occasion, the victim was hugged from back while she was performing her duties. All complains showed that the accused has used his superiority to dominate his subordinate. This is a major situation in most sexual harassment cases either in workplace, home and even in universities. People, who owned a higher degree of authority (usually male) and have a sexual harassing tendency, would use this opportunity as a weapon against his victims. In Edaran Communication, the accused had also harassed the tea-lady (C3W) by holding her hand, constantly inviting her to go out and also inviting her into an empty room which scared the victim that he might harass her. The patterns done were similar to the same pattern done towards C2W. This proved that harasser will copy his previous act toward the other victims if he thinks it will work on her too. The company in this case, Edaran Communication SB has an effective human resources management where the complaint board does not only cover clerical workers and officers but cover the cleaners who are not permanent workers in the company. The victims had made complaints to the board and according to the Company Sixth Witness (C6W), they had called the accused for investigation process. The accused then denied the allegation, and the company asked him to provide a written replied to deny the allegation made but he failed to do so. Later, the company disciplinary board found him guilty for the charges alleged based on evidences provided and he was dismissed. He claimed that the dismissal was unlawful.
In the presented case of Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore services. Inc., Joseph Oncale who is the plaintiff was an employee of Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc. the defendant. Oncale was a victim of continuous sexual, physical, and mental harassment by three of his co-workers, two of whom were in a superior position than him at work. He was working in a team containing eight men of which the three that were making his life miserable were part of. The three co-workers were humiliating and assaulting Oncale sexually to the point where one of them essentially threatened to even rape him. Oncale reported the issue to his supervisor but nothing was done or there were no actions taken against the co-workers that were harassing him. Therefore,
Sandy Welsh, Jacquie Carr, Barbara MacQuarrie, Audrey Huntly “I’m Not Thinking of It as Sexual Harassment”: Understanding Harassment across Race and Citizenship. Gender and Society. 20.1 ( 2006): 87-107. Print.
The EEOC has also stated that a victim of sexual harassment need not say anything to any supervisor. Co-workers and supervisors are liable if any one kn...
According to legal dictionary (2013), sexual harassment refers to any form of unwelcome sexual behavior or advances, appeals for sexual errands, and other form of physical or verbal conduct or behavior that portrays sex nature and tends to make the working environment offensive or hostile. Any behavior or remarks that take such forms constitute sexual harassment when: Compliance to such conduct happens either implicitly or explicitly based on employment of an individual, rejection or compliance to such conduct is used to make decisions during employment and when such conduct interferes or affects performance of a person at the workplace. Sexual harassment ta...
Sexual harassment is a serious issue in the workplace, especially one that is still a predominantly male workforce like the police force. The legal definition of sexual harassment is “verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that unreasonably interferes with the employee’s work or cerates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment” (Sbraga, O’donohue). There is also a psychological definition of sexual harassment, which is defined as “an unwanted sex related behaviour at work that is appraised by the recipient as offensive, exceeding her resources, or threatening her will-being”(Sbraga & O’donohue). These definitions have been defined since the 1990s, yet in male predominant environments it continues to go on as if they were never told about them.
Sexual harassment and sexual assault is nothing new to the modern world. Though the aspect of sexual assault and harassment has existed since the dawn of time. Cavemen would club their selected mate and have their way with them. It wasn’t until the early 1980s that it became more pronounced as immoral and derogatory. Though some may say that certain acts, gestures, jokes, songs, or even quote do not fall under anything worth mentioning, it all boils down to who is present and how the offended perceives it. Bystanders may just see it and not think anything of it, or they will find it extremely offensive.
According to Webster’s online dictionary, it is believed that the phrase “sexual harassment” was coined at Cornell University in 1974 ("Sexual harassment," 2011). The phrase wasn’t, however, really used in common language until the testimony of Anita Hill against Clarence Thomas in 1991. Sexual harassment can take many different shapes and forms. According to a Fox News article, the sexual harassment claims made by men have increased twofold in the last twenty years ("Sexual harassment claims," 2010). Because sexual harassment is illegal both on a federal and state level in many states, there are steps that an individual and employer should take to prevent sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment is another subject of interpersonal communication that occurs in the workplace. Although sexual harassment violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and as amended by the Civil Rights Act of 1991, it is still a reality in all places of employment which is why it is something that everyone should have the ability to identify, understand, and effectively respond to.
Sexual harassment affects each one of us at the workplace, when it occurs. It could potentially lead to serious health and mental problems such as depressions, PTSD, even suicide! It affects the victims professionally, academically, financially and socially. Even organizations suffer from low productivity, loss of staff, driving a person away from work and legal costs if the matter is taken into court. Cruel sexual harassment can have the same psychological effect as rape or sexual physical attack.
Acts of sexual harassment against another individual have sadly become a common incidence in the workplace. It can be either physical or verbal. In 2008 the Association of Women for Action and Research conducted a survey addressing the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace. The study, which included 500 respondents and 92 companies, showed that 79% of the victims are women and 21% were men; 54% had experienced some form of workplace sexual harassment, 27% experienced harassment by their colleague, while, 17% were harassed by their superior. The study also showed that 12% had received threats of termination if they did no comply with the requests of the sexual harassers ("Statistics | AWARE | Workplace Sexual Harassment", n.d.).
Sexual Harassment is first traced from the Middle Ages in the feudal era, custom stipulated that all vassals or serfs were required to give their brides to satisfy their masters sexually. The only way this could be avoided was where the bride or the bridegroom paid a specific amount of produce in redemption dues. While this may seem different from sexual harassment on the job, in fact, in feudal times, the feudal lord was the employer of his vassals and serfs, and their brides became his sexual property. The masters appear to have enforced this custom regularly and with great enthusiasm.
Sexual harassment is a crippling reality in the work environment. The effects can be ravaging to an organization, to the individual harassed, fellow employees, and the harasser. Sexual harassment is not necessarily about sex, it is certainly about power. When someone at work uses sexual behavior to control you, whether it is behavioral or physical in nature, that is sexual harassment.
gives all of us the right to be treated fairly and to take action if
Do not become part of the statistics of such shameful acts. Get help with the sandbox! Finally, sexual harassment laws must be strengthened in order to fix what has become a serious problem today in the workplace, in order to avoid having more victims.
In today’s workplace, sexual harassment is a growing problem. The legal definition of sexual harassment is any unwelcome sexual advance or conduct on the job that creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment. Another definition is the making of unwanted and offensive sexual advances or of sexually offensive remarks or acts, especially by one in a superior or supervisory position. Women and men of all ages, backgrounds, races and experience are harassed on the job. Sexual harassment encountered in workplaces is a hazard across the world that reduces the quality of working life, jeopardizes the well-being of women and men, undermines gender equality and imposes costs on firms and organizations.