There's a thin line between flirtation and harassment

Are we safe? Are you safe? And are our women safe at the workplace? Your response will depend on which gender you belong to. But you don't need a column to tell you that women are not as safe as you would like them to be in the workplace. Let us analyse why we would state so vehemently what is perceived as an extreme view. At the overt level are issues pertaining to an insipid civil society - inappropriate language, coloured remarks and jokes, lack of respect, overt differentiation, amongst others.

At the covert level, women are not chosen for physically taxing jobs or roles that involve dealing with power that is sometimes perceived to be unscrupulous (corrupt governments or strident trade unions).

Women wearing western clothing or found smoking or having a drink with the "boys" are viewed as being "forward" in their outlook, meaning "available" or "loose", not just by their male counterparts but also amongst women friends.

Give the bill more teeth The Prohibition of Sexual Harassment of Women in Workplace Bill 2010 is no deterrent. To make it useful: It should outline a policy of summary dismissal of the guilty with no appeal The quantum of damages payable to a victim should be high enough to ensure compliance by corporations Companies must have a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment Cases should be handed over to law enforcement agencies at the earliest There should be no out-of-court financial settlement of such cases without appropriate legal guarantees The committees should not have more than two members, and they should be highly empowered to act

In the United States, as defined by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines, sexual harassment is "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when: submission to such conduct is either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of employment; submission or rejection is used as the basis of employment decisions affecting such individuals; such conduct has the effect of unreasonably interfering with a person's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment".

In short, sexual harassment can be any of those things a person finds sexually offensive on the job. Simple flirtation for one may be harassment for another. Also, sexual harassment may be directed from supervisors, co-workers or non-employees.

One of the biggest barriers to the amelioration of sexual harassment is the reluctance of women to label and/or report incidents of harassment. But this "silent reaction to sexual harassment syndrome" may just serve to perpetuate the existence of sexual harassment.

There is no doubt that predominately male environments tend to be more physically hostile and intimidating compared to other work environments, and men are more likely to physically mark their work environment with sexually objectionable material, sexual comments, and sexual jokes. The implications of these on job-related operations suggest the possibility of lower productivity and organisational commitment among women.

Employers can do a lot to prevent sexual harassment by educating managers, supervisors and employees as to the inappropriateness of such behaviour, by affirmatively stating their disapproval and by following through with the consequences for such behaviour as outlined in the company's policy.

The prohibition of sexual Harassment of Women in Workplace Bill 2010 is lame and requires measures that would act as a strong deterrent.

(The author is Head, People andChange at KPMG India)