harassment
Barry Streek
Staff in Parliament have been warned that sexual harassment – physical, verbal, non-verbal or ”quid pro quo” – will not be tolerated.
The warning follows the suspension of a senior parliamentary official, who is subject to a disciplinary hearing for the alleged sexual harassment of two parliamentary employees. Action against the official followed a public complaint by Pan Africanist Congress MP Patricia de Lille that Parliament was not taking the issue seriously enough.
This week secretary to Parliament Sindiso Mfenyane sent a circular letter to all staff advising that any incidents of sexual harassment should be reported without fear of victimisation and would be handled ”sensitively, expeditiously and in the strictest confidence”.
He defined sexual harassment as unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, distinguishing it from behaviour that was welcome and mutual.
”Sexual attention becomes sexual harassment if the behaviour is persisted in, although a single incident of harassment can constitute sexual harassment; and/or the recipient has made it clear that the behaviour is considered offensive; and/or the perpetrator should have known that the behaviour is regarded as unacceptable.”
Forms of sexual harassment could include physical contact of a sexual nature including ”all unwanted physical contact, ranging from touching to sexual assault and rape, and includes a strip search by or in the presence of the opposite sex”.
Verbal forms of sexual harassment included ”unwelcome innuendos, suggestions and hints, sexual advances, comments with overtones, sex-related jokes or insults or unwelcome graphic comments about a person’s body made in their presence or to them, unwelcome and inappropriate enquiries about a person’s sex life and unwelcome whistling at a person or a group of persons”.
Among non-verbal forms of sexual harassment were ”unwelcome gestures, indecent exposure and the unwelcome display of sexually explicit pictures and objects”.
And ”quid pro quo harassment occurs when an owner, employer, supervisor, member of management or co-employee undertakes or attempts to influence or influences the process of employment, promotion, training, discipline, dismissal, salary increments or other benefits of any employee or job applicant for sexual favours”.