Carole
Senior Member
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
Posts: 57
Career Advice: +3/-0
Location: Manchester
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 Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 5:44 pm Post subject: New Laws Around Sexual Harassment |
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Hi,
I saw this on my newsfeed and thought it would be interesting to post here.
QUOTE
New laws came into force on Saturday that extend the protection of sex discrimination rules to cover sexual harassment – workplace behaviour that is often difficult to prove and until now has been largely undefined in the UK.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said the change will force employers to take their responsibilities towards providing a harassment-free working environment more seriously.
"There's no place in the modern workplace for office gropers and lechers and bosses need to do more to stop those responsible for bad behaviour from making working life unbearable for thousands of women,” he said.
The definition of harassment
The Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005 amend the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 to provide that a person subjects a woman to harassment, including sexual harassment, if:
“(a) on the ground of her sex, he engages in unwanted conduct that has the purpose or effect –
(i) of violating her dignity, or
(ii) of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for her,
(b) he engages in any form of unwanted verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that has the purpose or effect—
(i) of violating her dignity, or
(ii) of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for her, or
(c) on the ground of her rejection of or submission to unwanted conduct of a kind mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b), he treats her less favourably than he would treat her had she not rejected, or submitted to, the conduct.”
UNQUOTE
I’m really interested in what others think about this. Isn’t it still going to be difficult to prove whether or not sexual harassment has taken place?
And supposing I turn up for work in a very low-cut top and push-up bra, am I not inviting comments or, at least, looks? If a man did look at my cleavage, could I say that I felt intimidated by him?
While I agree that sexual harassment in the workplace needs to stop, I’ve a feeling that a lot of the complaints that are made are by women who are just a tad too touchy!
Comments?
Carole |
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