Introduction
According to United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), sexual harassment is categorized as one form of gender discrimination that occurs at workplaces. There were many case of sexual harassment at workplaces in U.S. This led to the government coming up with laws aimed at mitigating this problem. Employers were made more accountable to any case of sexual harassment reported within their organizations. In addition, Society for Human Resource Management came up with seminars that aimed at training employers and employees on ways to avoid sexual harassment cases within their working environments. Most of the sexual harassment cases in United States appear to be reported by women. This is the most vulnerable group to this problem at workplaces. Sexual harassment is not only perpetrated by employers on their employees, different employees are also at times accused of sexually harassing their colleagues (Martell & Sullivan 1994, pp.195-200). According to EEOC, the number of sexual harassment cases filled by men is gradually increasing with 2004 reporting 17% of all reported cases coming from men.
The main reason for sexual harassment at workplace is herd to be identified. However, people claim that the relationship at workplaces is very intense and intimate. Employees working in the same field depend on one another at attaining their objectives. For employees to be promoted, they depend on their managers. This leads to the managers taking this opportunity to exploit their employees. Sexual harassment at workplaces may also occur due to a person suffering from trauma experienced in the event of divorce or when one lost his or her spouse. The intimate relationship between employees at workplace leads o some closing their boundaries. Sexual harassment at workplaces appears to occur across all operation fields. Nevertheless, women are found to suffer from sexual harassment especially in fields that were once believed to be of men. These include firefighting areas, mining as well as technological and medicine fields (Martell & Sullivan 1994, pp. 201-207).
Availability of sexist or environments favoring presence of sexual related objects and tones are some of the factors that has led to organizations finding it difficult to eradicate sexual harassment at workplaces. Currently, there are a lot of explicit pornographic materials in the internet. With most organization being furnished with internet, employees are able to access these materials. Eventually, their attitude towards people of the opposite sex is changed. Most organizations also do not control the kind of jokes cracked at workplaces. This encourages people using sexual sentiments towards their colleagues. In the end, people end up falling victims of sexual harassment. Despite some employees having the courage to report sexual harassment issues meted on them by their employers, there are others who fail to report the issues in fear of losing their jobs (Monat & Gomez 1986, pp. 712-718). Such employees continue suffering at the hands of their cruel employers without knowing what to do. This paper aims at giving an example of a sexual harassment case that occurred within Kamuga Corporation but the victim failed to report the case in fear of being sacked.
The Issue
Kamuga Corporation is a company that deals in manufacture of electronics. The company has employed different employees who work at various departments within it. It happens that the chief executive officer of the company is a lady by the name Ms. Musembi who is not married. John is one of the employees who work in the procurement department of the company. He had worked with the company for seven years and had been known by Ms. Musembi for his commitment to the company activities. Being a handsome man, Ms. Musembi started inviting John to her office occasionally. Initially, the invitation appeared to be business related where they could discuss on problems affecting the procurement department. However, the invitation gradually started changing where Musembi could invite him for tea outside the company. When he realized that Musembi had some hidden agenda and could spoil his marriage, he decided to ignore most of her invitations. However, Musembi did not stop there. He decided to organize for an international tour in the name of increase knowledge in procurement procedures. John had to travel with her to Dubai with Musembi to increase his knowledge in procurement processes with a bid to expand the business. In Dubai it happened that the to9ur was not about business but Musembi wanted to have an opportunity to spend time with John way from his fellow employees who had started suspecting her motives. His made John annoyed. Being unable to cater for his flight, he decided to give in to Musembi’s advances but later on returning home, he wrote a resignation letter and left the company.
Facts about the issue
John joined the company in 2008. Initially he worked as the production department. After working for seven months, Ms. Musembi claimed that he was a hard working employee and deserved to be promoted. This was not received well by other employees who had worked in the company for over ten years without being promoted. Eventually, John was elevated to manage the procurement department. He was responsible of liaising with suppliers, ordering and receiving materials used in electronic production. This gave John an opportunity to participate in organization’s board meetings. As it is normal in organizations, whenever a new person join the board, it is the responsibility of the board’s chair to introduce him or her to other members. It happened that Musembi chaired the board. Unlike the way she used to introduce new members to the board, she introduced John in a different manner that left other board members doubt his promotion. Musembi commented on how handsome John was and used all sorts of sexually provoking jokes. As she was a jovial lady, the board members did not take the matter seriously. However, John did not take the matter lightly and he decided to discuss it with Paul who was also a board member. Paul told him that Musembi was a jovial lady and all she said she did not mean it.
The next time Musembi invited John to her office. He had notified him that she wanted then to come up with a plan on how to source for more suppliers as they were in the middle of expanding the company. As John was devoted to ensuring the success of the company, he was ready to participate in any discussion aimed at improving the company. He got the office and found Musembi seated in her chair. Surprisingly, Musembi sent her secretary out who used to work on a desk next to her. This made John suspicious of the business as if it was all about the company issues there was no need of sending the secretary away. Musembi invited him to chair that was situated right in front of hers. She told him that she did not specifically intend to discuss company matters. Her main aim of inviting him to her office was to enquire why he looked annoyed when he was being introduced to the board. He told her that the introduction did not appear official and he feared his colleagues would doubt the credibility of his promotion. Musembi told him that she owned the company and had the right to promote whoever she wished. She offered to take John for an outing but John turned her down claiming that he was a married man and would not like to go against his marriage vows. John left the office without further conversation with Musembi.
This did not deter Musembi from making her advance against John. After two weeks, she decided to visit John at his procurement department. John was busy compiling orders that he intended to post the following day. All the other staffs in the department had been deployed to other departments as there was no work in the procurement department. John was surprised to see Musembi standing in front of him. He invited her and continued with his work. She was not happy with the invitation and asked if she was not supposed to visit him. John smiled and told her that she was warmly welcome to visit the department whenever she wished. After a short conversation, Musembi stepped closer to John and placed her hand on his shoulder. She started telling him how she fell in love with him the first time she saw him. She told him that they would keep the matter secrete if he feared his fellow employees knowing of his affairs with her. John reminded her of his marriage and requested her to remove her hand. Musembi kept on insisting making John to stop his compilation. As John tried to convince Musembi why he did not want to have an affair out of his marriage, one of his subordinates came into the office to submit some orders that had not been delivered to the office for processing. He was shocked to find Musembi holding John by the shoulders and John was trying to resist her. Fearing to be intimidated, he dropped the orders on the desk and left the office immediately. Musembi followed and left John in the office. That day he did not complete compiling the orders. This led to materials being delivered late.
Thinking that John feared his fellow employees Musembi organized for a trip outside the country where he told John that they had to go to Dubai for business matters. John had no option but to obey. The day came and they left having informed his wife that he was to be out for two days on business matters. The left with everybody in the company knowing that they were out for business matters apart from Musembi. In Dubai, John was shocked to find that Musembi had booked a single room for the two. He insisted on booking another room but Musembi told him to stop behaving like a child. She claimed that no one knew of what they were doing. She even offered to increase his salary once they go back to the country. John resisted and opted to sleep on the chair. The following day he demanded to go back home. Musembi canceled the trip and they decided to go back home. People in the company were shocked to see them return earlier than they had planed. Without discussing anything with other employees about the trip, he decided to write a resignation letter and left the company.
Applicable laws
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employees are protected against sexual harassment at workplaces. The act gives the remedies taken in case of sexual harassment at workplaces. This covers employees working in organizations with more than fifteen employees. For organizations with less number of employees, there are similar state anti-discrimination laws that cover them. The act categorizes sexual harassment at workplaces into two types. These are the quid pro quo and hostile work environment harassment. In quid pro Quo harassment, this is a situation where an employee is supposed to succumb to harassment so as to retain his or her job, have salary increment, be promoted or get other working benefits from employers (Larson 2003, para. 1-5).
Hostile work environment harassment on the other hand is the type of harassment that affects one’s performance within the organization or leads to an offensive or abusive working condition (Bennett-Alexander & Laura 2007, p. 243). There are various considerations that are made to determine if the working environment is hostile. These include the type of conduct; if it was verbal, physical or both, if the conduct was intimidating or blatantly offensive, the frequency with which the conduct was repeated, the relation of the harasser to the harassed and the number of victims of the harassment. Quid pro quo harassment can be established with a single incident. However, to establish hostile work environment it requires one to investigate the trend of the conduct. There re various conducts considered as sexual harassment. These are request for sexual favors, physical or verbal conduct that are sexual in nature and unsolicited sexual advances. In Barnes V. Costle, the court of appeal from Columbia District declared that dismissal of employee for refusing sexual advances amounted to sexual harassment. This is because it adversely affected the victim’s working environment (Fenley 1988, pp. 3-5). Verbal sentiments may also comprise sexual harassment based on the context, motives of the remarks and frequency that they are used. If the remarks are offensive and intimidating they can be considered as sexual harassment. In Quality Inn V. UFCW, Local 175 the investigators despite finding that the supervisor had harassed the plaintiff, they held that the conduct did not amount to sexual harassment. Although the harasser’s conduct comprised of some offensive sentiments, they claimed that the conduct was not sexual harassment as it was shared among employees of both genders. However, Ontario Board of Inquiry expanded the scope of sexual harassment in Chaw V. Levac supply Ltd by stating that all derogative and negative statements directed towards a certain person amounts to sexual harassment (Collier 1995, pp. 321-345).
Analysis and conclusion
Unwelcome sexual advances are any attempt to lure a person to accepting our request without his or her will. It does not matter whether the harasser initially had an intimate relationship with the victim. In this case, Ms. Musembi’s actions constitutes of sexual harassment. When John realized of her motives, he warned her that he was a married man and was not interested in having extramarital affairs. When she visited him at his office in procurement department, John objected to her idea of placing her hand on his shoulders. He even decided to cancel the trip in Dubai when he understood that Musembi was taking this as an opportunity to advance her sexual requests on him. As a result of this harassment, John deserved to receive punitive damages from Ms. Musembi as a way of discouraging her from reciprocating the same to other employees (Campanella 1994, pp. 491-497).
The sexual abuse started seven months after John joined the company. This was after he was promoted to manage the procurement department. It continued throughout the rest of time he was in the company as Musembi could visit his department or call him to her office whenever she wanted to see him. This made him feel uncomfortable working in the company. After realizing that she could not win him in the company she decided to organize for international trip so as to have an opportunity with him. This affected him emotionally and he deserved to be compensated for that. Apart from the encounter in Dubai, all the other harassments took place at workplace. Musembi visited or invited John to her office during working hours. This made him fail to work effectively. For instance, the encounter in the procurement office made him fail to compile all orders leading to suppliers delivering their materials late. Despite John complaining about the matter and requesting Musembi to stop her advances, she did not stop. Had John filed the case, he could have received punitive damages (Campanella 1994, pp. 498-500). There is need for Kamuga Corporation to come up with sexual harassment policy that will deter Musembi and other employees who may have the intention of sexually harassing their colleagues at workplace.
Reference List
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Collier, R., 1995. Combating sexual harassment in the workplace. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Fenley, T., 1988. Dealing with sexual harassment: American experience. Equal opportunity international, 7(3), pp. 3-5.
Larson, A., 2003. Sexual Harassment Law. [Online] Web.
Martell, k. & Sullivan, G., 1994. Sexual harassment: The continuing workplace crisis. Labor law journal, 45(4), pp. 195-207.
Monat, J. S. & Gomez, A., 1986. Decisional standards used by arbitrators in sexual harassment cases. Labor law journal, 37(10), pp. 712-718.