Sexual harassment is an instance of sexual advancement which is unwelcome. They can be physical or verbal or coercive actions that are of sexual nature, including exchanges for sexual favours.
Under the United Nations Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) – of which Singapore is a signatory – sexual harassment may be defined as “such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour as physical contact and advances, sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography and sexual demands, whether by words or actions.”
“According to the YouGov Omnibus research (26%) of Singaporean women have experienced sexual harassment, compared to one in ten (9%) men. Amongst the women, only half (52%) reported or told someone about the incident. Amongst those women who reported the incident, most told a friend (54%) or family (41%) about being sexually harassed, rather than the police (19%).”
The law
On 13 March 2014, the Singapore Parliament passed the Protection from Harassment Act (POHA). The law was institutionalised keeping in mind the workplace sexual harassment scenario in Singapore.
There is legislation here that specifically governs certain acts of harassment, namely the Penal Code and Protection from Harassment Act (POHA). The Protection from Harassment Act (POHA) (2014), defines workplace harassment as “the use of threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour; or make any threatening, abusive or insulting communication to another person such that it causes harassment, alarm or distress. Any person who commits the above conduct, whether or not that conduct is of a sexual nature, is breaking the law.”
The POHA further strengthens existing penalties for harassment while introducing new offences such as stalking.
While POHA covers sexual/non-sexual harassment, the Penal code further operates in legislation for acts of harassment that are specifically sexual in nature. “Under the Penal Code, harassment includes unwanted touching, which legislates against unwanted touching of a person; and insulting the modesty of a woman, which legislates against filming upskirt videos, saying, making a gesture or exhibiting something which insults the modesty of a woman.”
Sexual harassment can take shape in both physical and non-physical forms – therefore the Penal Code and the Protection from Harassment Act (POHA) can be used to protect victims in such cases. Both these acts can help the victims in the forms of filing Civil and Criminal suits.
Employer’s role under the Act:
The Protection from Harassment Act directly covers the area of workplace harassment prevention, the act through criminal sanctions and self-help measures helps victims of harassment to protect themselves.
Legal responsibility: Under the act, both employers and employees have a responsibility for the prevention and management of sexual harassment. This is to create a safe and conducive environment for employers and employees to carry out their work without fear of being harassed.
Employers could put in place investigation procedures to handle and investigate workplace harassment complaints. Along with maintaining proper closure of the harassment incident which can prevent a recurrence.
Ministry of Manpower (MOM) guidelines state the existence of an organisation’s workplace harassment-related procedures; and the process where the employee can report the harassment encounter to their supervisor, manager, Human Resources Department, or delegated neutral party for the organisation to intervene and take appropriate action. Under these guidelines, the company is obliged to take steps to protect its employees from workplace harassment.
Best practices to be adopted by the employers: The employer is encouraged to develop and implement measures to manage harassment at the workplace by the development of company policies and education of employees in the area of prevention of sexual harassment.
- It is important to ensure that harassment is taken seriously at all levels of the organisation. The employer should train their employees, especially the HR, line managers and supervisors to handle harassment cases. The Act also calls for the creation of a harassment reporting line that allows for reporting of harassment cases.
- The employer should create a safe environment for reporting and ensure that whistle-blowers are not penalised, along with creating a just and fair investigation mechanism in place.
Other legal remedies accessible to the victims:
- Criminal remedy: The victim can also file a police report under the Protection from Harassment Act. For acts of harassment inclusive of “causing harassment, alarm or distress (whether intentional or otherwise), causing fear or provoking violence, threatening, abusing or insulting public servant or public service worker, and unlawful stalking” the court can order a convicted offender to pay monetary compensation to the person injured, under section 359 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).
- Civil remedy: Under section 11 of the POHA, a victim can still seek legal redress and obtain monetary compensation against the perpetrator for the following offences under the POHA. The victim may also seek civil remedies against the harasser, such as a Protection Order (PO) and Expedited Protection Order (EPO). “A PO may be granted for contraventions of the Protection from Harassment Act provisions. In situations where the harassment is additionally likely to occur imminently, and have substantial adverse effects on the victim or the victim’s day-to-day activities, an EPO may also be sought.”
Prominent women-led organisations have also advocated for better legal sanctions in regard to harassment at the workplace. One major organisation being AWARE, which has created a Workplace Harassment and Discrimination Advisory (WHDA) service to provide legal and emotional support to individuals facing harassment and discrimination at work thus giving victims access to other resources.