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Ms. Ruth Ferkah Kyere explaining a point to reporters during the show. Image: NII MARTEY M. BOTCHWAY
The Head of Gender and International at the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations (MELR), Ms Ruth Ferkah Kyere, has emphasized the need for corporate organizations to institute workplace policies to address the problems of sexual harassment.
He said it was important for business organizations to clearly define the structures that would make it easier to address this problem.
Speaking at a panel discussion organized by the Gender Center for Development Empowerment (Gene), in Accra yesterday, Ms Ferkah Kyere said that it was necessary for corporate organizations to have policies detailing appropriate sanctions and punishments for perpetrators of sexual harassment.
The event brought together representatives from civil society organizations, corporate institutions and legislators to assess the state of sexual harassment in the business world and discuss strategies to address it.
Ms. Ferkah Kyere, who is also Deputy Director of Human Resources at the ministry, said that although both men and women were victims of sexual harassment, the majority of the victims were women and girls.
Necessary attention
He said that the necessary attention had not been paid to the issue bordering on sexual harassment.
“It has been considered a norm and this constitutes a hazard in the workplace,” he said.
Although the Labor Law (651) of 2003 explained sexual harassment as “any unwanted, offensive or sexual innuendo or request made by an employer, a superior official or a co-worker to a worker, whether male or female,” Ms. Ferkah Kyere said that most people did not even know that the laws did not approve it.
She said that sexual harassment not only creates a hostile, intimidating and offensive environment in the workplace, but it also affects productivity.
He also mentioned that sexual harassment undermines the dignity of the victims and violates their human rights.
Policy review
Ms. Ferkah Kyere mentioned that the ministry was in the process of revising the law to include some emerging challenges with sexual harassment.
He said that the current Labor Law does not provide in-depth solutions to address the challenges of sexual harassment.
It indicated that, for example, “the law states that an employee can leave or terminate his appointment when he has repeatedly reported cases of sexual harassment and the employer does not address the problem.”
This, he said, was vague, as it did not indicate what steps or actions would be taken next.
The review, he said, would provide a more comprehensive and defined approach to dealing with sexual harassment when complete.
The project director at GenCED, Ms Elorm Doe-Atakli, said that sexual harassment had emotional, physical and psychological effects on the victims and also caused intangible damage both to the victim and to the reputation and credibility of the organization.
She said support systems were needed to encourage more women to report sexual harassment.
“Most of the people did not report cases of sexual harassment, while the few who did report it also did not follow up to ensure that justice was done, mainly because the issue was treated lightly and in most cases it was passed through high, “he added.
She said there was no strong punitive measure dissuading people from participating in the act and said that if corporate organizations implement strong punitive measures, the issue of sexual harassment will soon be a thing of the past.
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