1 February, 2016
The Ministry of Manpower, National Trades Union Congress, and Singapore National Employers Federation (collectively, the “Tripartite Partners”) have recently issued the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Workplace Harassmenti (the “Advisory”). The Advisory is intended to help employers and employees manage workplace harassment, and was developed following the enactment of the Protection from Harassment Act 2014 (the “PHA”) on 15 November 2014.
Overview of the Advisory
The Advisory provides a practical guide for employers and employees to prevent and manage harassment at the workplace. The protection afforded by the PHA includes protection against harassment within the confines of the office or workplace, and extends to protection against harassment during business trips and other work-related occasions, and even harassment through social media.
Briefly, workplace harassment may take different forms, for example:
- threatening, abusive or insulting language, comments or other non- verbal gestures;
- cyber bullying;
- sexual harassment; and
- stalking.
Such behaviour may potentially be caught within the ambit of the PHA, given that it is an offence under the PHA to:
- intentionally cause harassment, alarm or distress to another person, whether by way of using any threatening, abusive or insulting words, behaviour or communications (collectively known as “Offensive Acts”), so as to cause that person harassment, alarm or distressii;
- cause harassment, alarm or distress by way of Offensive Acts which are heard, seen or otherwise perceived by a victimiii; or
- unlawfully stalk another personiv.
In view of the above considerations, the Advisory provides helpful guidance for employers. These are in respect of: (a) core values to foster a conducive and safe organisational culture; (b) principles to ensure that their anti- harassment measures are effective and practical; and (c) good practices to prevent and respond to harassment at the workplace.
Each of these is elaborated below.
Core Values
The Advisory recommends the following as core values:
- Mutual respect – respecting an individual's personal values and beliefs;
- People-centredness – putting people at the heart of what the organisation does, and ensuring that they do not feel intimidated at work;
- Empathy – standing up against workplace harassment and providing support for fellow colleagues; and
- Cultural understanding – building awareness of the cultural norms and understanding cultural sensitivities in an increasingly diverse workplace.
The Advisory encourages employers to adopt these core values to provide guidance to the way that their employees work with clients, with each other and within the organisation, so as to foster a more conducive and safe organisational culture.
Principles
In addition to the core values, the Advisory also proposes the adoption of the following principles:
- Zero-tolerance – organisations should make it known that harassment would not be tolerated and would be dealt with seriously;
- Leadership commitment – the senior management should lead the effort by providing resources and demonstrating their commitment to a workplace free of harassment;
- Everyone plays a part – employers, employees and customers should also take on responsibility to promote a workplace free from harassment;
- Holistic management – organisations should ensure that their workplace safety and health risk management includes the assessment of harassment and other psychosocial risks;
- Early prevention – organisations should focus on implementing preventive measures to ensure that signs of harassment are identified at the onset;
- Confidentiality – organisations should ensure that the identities of the victims of harassment, informants and the harassers are kept confidential;
- Neutrality – organisations should ensure that the management of harassment cases are handled by neutral parties;
- Non-retaliation – organisations should ensure that informants are not victimised by the employer for whistleblowing;
- Accountability – organisations should ensure that every step of the investigation process is thoroughly documented.
The Advisory encourages employers to adopt the aforementioned principles so as to ensure that any workplace anti-harassment measures will be effective and practical.
Good Practices
Furthermore, the Advisory recommends employers to consider the following good practices:
- developing a harassment prevention policy;
- providing information and training on workplace harassment; and
- implementing reporting and response procedures.
Harassment Prevention Policy
A formal policy should be developed in consultation with workers and communicated clearly to all levels of the organisation. It is recommended that a standard policy should includev:
- a clear position statement on zero tolerance for harassment;
- management commitment to prevent and respond to harassment;
- illustrations and examples of workplace harassment;
- avenues for recourse and assistance;
- information on investigation and grievance handling process; and
- actions to be taken against the harasser.
Employers are also reminded to review their policies regularly and revise the policies whenever appropriate to ensure that they are relevant to the workplace.
Provide information and training on workplace harassment
In addition to the introduction of formal policies, employers are also encouraged to provide information and training to their employees (especially the human resource department, line managers and supervisors) on workplace harassment.
For instance, employers may consider providing training to help their employees, managers, supervisors and human resource personnel to be aware of:
- work risk factors that may result in harassment;
- behaviours that may constitute harassment; and
- potential signs of harassment (e.g. high absentee rate).
Implement reporting and response procedures
The Advisory also recommends the implementation of reporting and response procedures, including:
- a harassment reporting line to ensure timely reporting;
- a standardised investigation procedure to ensure fair treatment of workplace harassment issues; and
- a closure regime to prevent recurrence of incident.
Comment
The enactment of the PHA introduces considerable protection for victims of harassment. The Advisory reinforces and elaborates upon the scope of this protection in the workplace, and recognises that the responsibility to create a safe and conducive workplace lies with both employees and employers.
In this regard, employers are encouraged to consider the adoption of the core values, principles and good practices set out in the Advisory.
With pre-emptive and remedial measures in place, employers may potentially benefit from achieving an effective resolution of harassment incidences, and avoid any negative repercussions that workplace harassment may have on the morale and productivity of the workforce.
i The Advisory is available at: http://www.mom.gov.sg/~/media/mom/documents/employment- practices/guidelines/tripartite-advisory-on-managing-workplace-harassment.pdf?la=en
ii Section 3 of the PHA
iii Section 4 of the PHA
iv Section 7 of the PHA
v For a sample of a harassment prevention policy, please see Annex A of the Advisory.
For further information, please contact:
Celeste Ang, Baker & McKenzie.Wong & Leow
celeste.ang@bakermckenzie.com
