Addressing a sexual harassment complaint

Susan Heathfield suggests the following:

• Ensure all your employees are informed of your organization's policy regarding sexual harassment;
• Assign a knowledgeable individual to handle the complaint;
• Plan the investigation based on current knowledge;
• Interview the complainant and reassure him/her that he/she will be safe from retaliation and that they took the appropriate step in reporting the incident;
• Inform the employee that you need to know immediately about any retaliation, purported retaliation or on-going harassment the employee experiences;
• Ask the employee to narrate the incident in his/her own words;
• Inform the accused person that a complaint has been filed and no acts of retaliation will be tolerated;
• Assure the accused that there will be a fair and just investigation;
• Interview potential witnesses and seek facts that support or disprove the allegations;
• Interview the accused;
• Make decisions about whether sexual harassment occurred or not;
• Recognize that you are not perfect and no situation can be perfectly investigated;
• Ensure that no further incidents occur by following up and documenting follow-up;
• Afford the employee who may have been wrongly accused the same courtesy of following up and documentation.

It is worth noting that not every allegation of sexual harassment is a foregone conclusion that it actually took place, there are potentially malicious allegations that employees may throw in their colleague's direction and this is the more reason a thorough and just investigation needs to be carried out in order to weed out these malicious claims against the innocent.
Uganda's Employment Act, 2006 requires that every employer who employs 25 people or more must have a sexual harassment policy in place, how the number 25 was reached is still a mystery to me. Just for argument's sake, let's say my company employs 10 people and the same acts that constitute sexual harassment take place between 2 individuals and that I don't have a sexual harassment policy in place would my company be let go scott-free?
Anybody out there to help me with this?

Sexual harassment at the workplace

When Alexandria, a data entry clerk with four years under her belt approached her immediate boss to inquire about her chances regarding a recent internal advert in her organization, he reassured her and promised to put in a good word for her with the line manager of that department. She strolled out of his office humming her favourite tune-- God will always make a way.
Later that evening, Alexandria's cell phone purrs the low, gentle melody she had set as her ringtone and on checking who the caller was, she saw it was Bicks her boss.
"Hello, boss," she answered excitedly expecting good news about the position they had discussed earlier that day.
"Alex my dear. How are you" he said.
"Am cool, is this about our earlier talk? she asked.
"Yes, as a matter of fact the job is yours for the taking but....." he hesitated. "Is there a problem, boss?" Alexandria asked.
"Oh no, no Alex all I wanted to ask is that we go out together tonight," Bicks said.
" Oh sorry, Bicks, I'd love to but I can't. I've got Charles my boyfriend to pick from the airport tonight."
"Maybe tomorrow then?" he asks tightly.
"Am sorry boss, but that won't be possible," she answered without any further explanation.
After a short period of silence he said, "Hey, do still remember that opportunity we talked about? It might just go to someone else who is more cooperative," and he hung up on her.

There are numerous stories similar to this one doing the rounds in Uganda, remember sex for marks at some of our tertiary institutions? With the sickening statistics of unemployment in Uganda today, many of our young people-- both male and female-- have to put up with this kind of thing and are either very afraid or outright ashamed of speaking out.

Section 7 (1) of our Employment Act, 2006 says an employee shall be sexually harassed if that employee's employer or his/her representative directly or indirectly makes a request for sexual intercourse, contact or any other form of sexual activity that contains: a promise of preferential treatment, threat of detrimental treatment or threat about the present or future employment status and that these subject the employee to behaviour that is unwelcome or offensive and have a detrimental effect on that employee's employment, job performance or job satisfaction.

Come on guys how many of you have been and/or are still being sexually harassed at work and you've done nada to stop it?