Bosses often the culprits in cases of workplace sexual harassment: Lawyers

While women in the past might have turned a blind eye to sexual harassment, they are now more willing to report such abuses, said lawyers.

A total of 73 protection orders were filed for sexual harassment at the Protection from Harassment Court in 2023, a slight increase from the 69 such orders filed in 2022.

Between June 2021, when the court specialising in hearing harassment cases was set up, and December 2021, 34 protection orders against sexual harassment were filed.

Mr Fong Wei Li, managing director of Forward Legal, said: “There is greater awareness and reporting of sexual harassment incidents, partly due to movements like #MeToo. Advocacy and educational campaigns have empowered more victims to come forward and report such behaviour.”

The #MeToo movement started in 2017 when a tweet by American actress Alyssa Milano went viral.

She encouraged those who had been sexually harassed or assaulted to write “Me too” on social media.

The movement brought down powerful men in fields such as entertainment, politics and business, like Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Research has also shown that the movement led to an increased reporting of sexual crimes in some countries.

Greater awareness aside, some companies have also improved their processes for reporting and addressing sexual harassment, Mr Fong said.

Such harassment includes unwelcome sexual advances, inappropriate touching and requests for sexual favours. The perpetrators could be anyone, from colleagues to strangers, lawyers say.

One woman who rejected her supervisor’s demands for a sexual relationship found herself being yelled at during meetings and called names by the supervisor.

When the woman reported the harassment to her human resources division, it made light of it, telling her such sexual advances and comments such as “I love you” are “common and normal”, said the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) senior research executive Kimberly Wong.

The HR department did not take further action on her complaint, the woman told Aware. Ms Wong added: “The client was afraid for her job security as she was at that point a single mother, and (she) expressed helplessness.”

Overall, 117 protection orders against workplace harassment – sexual and non-sexual, such as bullying, discrimination and abuse – were filed at the Protection from Harassment Court in 2023, compared with 125 in 2022.

Between June and December 2021, 78 such orders were filed.

The widespread adoption of work-from-home arrangements since the Covid-19 pandemic has reduced in-person interaction at the office, which could have led to fewer instances of workplace harassment, lawyers said.

But instances of intimidation and bullying continue.

One of Mr Fong’s clients said he was bullied and ostracised by his boss because he was gay.

Mr Fong said: “The supervisor frequently made derogatory remarks about the victim in front of other staff, used offensive slurs on him, excluded him from team meetings and unfairly criticised his work performance.”

The man lodged a complaint with his company’s HR division and the matter was settled through mediation. He transferred to another department.

Another client was a flight attendant who had intimate pictures of her circulated in a WhatsApp work group by a colleague. That colleague suspected the flight attendant of having an affair with her husband, and obtained the pictures secretly from her husband’s phone.

All three parties worked at the same airline.

The flight attendant obtained a protection order, which prohibited the colleague from sharing any images or information about her.

Bosses are often the ones perpetrating the sexual harassment, but many victims do not go to the police or the court to report their superiors, said several lawyers interviewed, including Regent Law’s senior criminal lawyer Rajan Supramaniam.

He said: “Most of these cases go unreported, as they fear losing their jobs if they go against their bosses.”

While #MeToo may be contributing to less tolerance for such acts, many victims continue to suffer in silence.

In a 2021 survey by Aware of 39 women who had experienced workplace sexual harassment, it found that only about half filed a complaint with their HR department or called the police.

The fear of retaliation was a key reason many kept quiet about the abuse. Ms Wong said many victims of sexual harassment experience shock, anxiety and guilt, and they may blame themselves for not stopping the harassment from happening.

They may spend significant sums of money to seek counselling or psychiatric treatment, she added. The study also found that about 40 per cent of these women quit their jobs because of the harassment.

Source: Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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