Last month, AWARE released a 70 page report on workplace sexual harassment highlighting the inadequacies of the current system in protecting employees from harassment and providing due recourse to victims.

The report is based on the experiences of victims who approached AWARE for support. Some of these case studies are published in the report.

This is why the current laws are inadequate:

• Sexual harassment is currently dealt with under the criminal law. Criminal remedies are often not the appropriate remedy as they aim to punish the offender rather than to stop the offender’s actions or to provide compensation to the victim, which are usually what the victim seeks.

• Non-physical harassment is treated as non-seizable offences under the criminal law. This means that the Police will generally not have power to arrest the offender and to prosecute the case.

• Victims of Workplace Sexual Harassment have very few options for seeking assistance and intervention. Most companies are not equipped to deal with Workplace Sexual Harassment. MOM and TAFEP lack the authority to intervene.

• Most companies do not have any sexual harassment policies or procedures in place. This is not surprising as there is currently no statutory obligation on employers to do so.

Policy Makers’ Position

In the last four months, AWARE has met with government officials from MOM, TAFEP and MCYS to discuss this issue. There appear to be two main reasons why the Singapore Government resists having a specific laws or code on this issue:

a)    The Government does not see this as a serious or prevalent problem.

b)    They think legislation is not the answer to deal with this.

Let’s address these two issues in turn.

Is Sexual Harassment Prevalent?

The catch is that there are no official statistics on this – it’s an invisible problem.

• The police do not track such cases.

• The Ministry of Manpower does not intervene in such cases except where there is unlawful dismissal.

• The Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices (TAFEP) has no official authority to intervene, and while it says that it will respond to such complaints by calling the employer with the complainant’s permission, it does not represent itself as an agency that will address this issue. For example, there is nothing on its website that tells the public that they can approach TAFEP about such cases.

A survey conducted by AWARE in 2007-2008 revealed that more than half of 500 people surveyed had experienced some form of workplace sexual harassment.

On top of this, the number of calls that AWARE’s Helpline (1800 777 5555) received from victims of workplace sexual harassment peaked in 2012. It is comparable to the number of domestic violence cases that we see. And this is only the tip of the iceberg as most victims simply do not report because they do not know who to go to, are ashamed or embarrassed to talk about it, or feel that there is nothing much that can be done and it is better to move on to another job.

This is why AWARE has launched the SHOUT campaign.

We want to OUT Sexual Harassment in both senses of the world: 1) get people to speak up if they have been a victim of sexual harassment and 2) banish it from the workplace. So if you know anyone who has been sexually harassed, or if you’ve gone through it yourself, we encourage you to come talk to us about it. The louder our voice, the greater our chances of being heard by those in power.

Is Legislation the Best Way?

Experts who study sexual harassment across different countries highly recommend that the State should have specific legislation on this. For more information about this work, see “Action Against Sexual Harassment at Work in Asia and the Pacific“.

Having a specific law on this establishes that our society’s norms do NOT tolerate sexual harassment. Laws will help to establish a culture of zero tolerance against sexual harassment and have a preventive / deterrent effect.

Singapore – a laggard in this area

Singapore falls short of the world’s top business cities in implementing effective anti-sexual harassment legislation.

In Bloomberg’s 2012 list of “Top Countries for Business”, it is noted that, with the exception of Singapore, all the Top 12 Countries for Business – Hong Kong, Netherlands, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Japan, France, Austria, Singapore, Switzerland and Canada – have implemented laws which specifically address Workplace Sexual Harassment.

Positive Duty to Legislate against Sexual Harassment

Singapore is obliged under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to have legislative provisions on sexual harassment in the workplace and in educational institutions.

In 2007 and 2011, in response to Singapore’s CEDAW Reports, the UN CEDAW Committee expressed its concern about the lack of a legal definition and prohibition against sexual harassment. The UN CEDAW Committee urged Singapore to “take steps to enact legislative provisions on sexual harassment at the workplace, as well as in educational institutions, including sanctions, civil remedies and compensation for victims”.

AWARE’s Campaign

AWARE urges the State to reform the laws in this area so as to provide for the following:

1. Explicit legal protection against sexual harassment
2. Impose an affirmative duty on employers to take steps to prevent sexual harassment
3. Establish / empower an administrative body to handle complaints and promote application of the law
4. Provide a wide range of civil remedies and sanctions to deal with sexual harassment

AWARE is also appealing to companies based in Singapore to pledge their commitment to implementing policies that address workplace sexual harassment so that victims will have proper avenues for redress and support.

To achieve all this, we need you to speak up to demand more protection against workplace sexual harassment.
SHOUT Now. Visit www.shout.org.sg and sign our petition to help us ‘out’ sexual harassment!