Page 13 - ARUBA TODAY

A13
Tuesday 22 augusT 2017

Under Pressure

sexual workplace harass-
ment laws also require that
employers provide harass-
ment free workplaces. In
Brazil, sexual harassment
can be a crime for the em-
ployer who commits it, but
it’s only a civil matter for
the employer.
Looking at the Caribbean
we see that in Aruba 37
percent of the employ-
ees don’t feel safe at
their workplace, for Cura-
cao this is 33 percent and
above 50 percent claims
to report incidents of sexu-
al harassment because of
the lack of trust and con-
fidence. Research of AWH
(About Workplace Harass-
ment 2015-2017). all workplaces in order to ronment free from (sexual)
achieve a safe, healthy harassment.
Male Victims and productive work envi- “Protection from sexual
The number of male vic- ronment. And that includes harassment and an en-
tims of sexual workplace having a well implement- vironment that allows an
harassment is growing an- ed harassment policy and employee to work with
nually. “The more informa- of course enforcement. dignity are universally
tion people have about We cannot deny by the in- recognized as a basic
ORANJESTAD - For her, it all harassment according to the topic and its causes creasingly level of publica- human right.”
tions –worldwide- that the
started with a personal ex- the report working condi- and consequences, the current approach of creat- As we know physical work-
perience of (sexual) work- tions survey by RAND ex- more likely it is that people ing a workplace free from load or PSC (Physical Safe-
place harassment. The pe- posed in the beginning of will report an incident as vi- any form of harassment is ty Climate) is associated
riod of isolation in which August 2017. olent or (sexual) harassing that effective. with bullying, (sexual) ha-
the harassment took place According to the FRA (Eu- behavior. Tolerating and rassment and in turn psy-
and the emotional roller- ropean Agency of Fun- covering up violent behav- So how do we approach chological health. This must
coaster you suddenly find damental rights) 33 per- ior can for multiple reasons (sexual) workplace harass- motivate governments
yourself within when you cent of the employees in lead to lower levels of re- ment? For rooting out ha- and employers to high-
speak-up drove her to her European Union countries porting.” rassment in the workplace level support on this topic
goal: to step up for other experiences unwanted “A precondition for this we need to realize that it’s in law, policy and enforce-
victims. sexual advances, physical sustainable employment a shared responsibility. We ment, because sustainable
contact or other form of (work-life balance), which need laws and enforce- is the ‘magic’ word for all
Karin Bosman, founder harassment at work. FRA in- we want to achieve is a ment, we need policy those looking for change
of the foundation About vestigated sexual violence work environment free that’s well implemented and improvement.
Workplace Harrasment against women in 28 coun- from (sexual) harassment.” but most of all we need
(AWH), and an interna- tries of the European Mem- awareness, which starts Taylor Swift
tional speaker about the ber States. with acknowledgement. With the increasing cases
topic,explains to Aruba In Latin America generally, Developing a good men- Due to the attention for of sexual workplace ha-
Today that discussion and tal health is important for sustainable employment rassment by both male
political debate need to AWH sees an opportunity and female it’s good to
raise the necessary aware- to create that awareness see that more and more
ness thus are essential to on a new perspective. Be- people are willing to
break the taboo that still cause the neglect of men- share their story, like Tay-
rests on sexual workplace tal health and psychical lor Swift recently. We need
harassment. factors at the workplace to speak-up about it, we
is not detrimental to the need this for sustainable
Around the World individual worker, it also di- change and performance
Nearly one in five Ameri- rectly affects productivity, improvement.But we all
can workers were subject- efficiency and the output have a shared responsibil-
ed to some form of verbal of any organization. A pre- ity that starts with aware-
abuse, unwanted sexual condition for this sustain- ness and there is no time to
attention, threats or humili- able employment (work- waste.
ating behavior at work or life balance), what we try www.aboutworkplaceha-
to physical violence, bul- to achieve is a work envi- rassment.com
lying, harassment or sexual