Last update - 00:00 22/11/2007
Histadrut to open tribunal for sexual harassment complaints
By Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondent
Na'amat, the working and volunteer women's movement of the Histadrut, together with the Histadrut intend to set up a disciplinary tribunal for dealing with sexual harassment in the private sector.
Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini said he has reached an agreement with
Manufacturers Association president Shraga Brosh to advance the tribunal.
Na'amat chair Talia Livni initiated the move after finding out that numerous complaints about sexual harassment in the private sector are not addressed. A poll that Na'amat commissioned for International Day Against Violence Against Women next week showed that 61 percent of workers interviewed said that colleagues who had been sexually harassed did not complain, and 30 percent said that when they did, the employer tried to cover the complaint up.
However, 88 percent of the women said that if they were sexually harassed they would complain.
"In many work places the employees don't know whom to turn to, and many
employers refrain from posting up the regulations in a prominent place for preventing sexual harassment, as required by law," Livni said.
"In small places, everyone knows everyone and nobody wants to get involved in a messy situation," she said. "As a result, employers don't deal with complaints and silence them instead."
The Civil Service Commission's disciplinary department operates a tribunal authorized by law to impose sanctions on a worker found guilty of harassment and even to fire him.
Livni and Eini believe that this is an effective way to deal with harassment complaints, among other things because women are usually reluctant to go to the police, and because the police often shut sexual-harassment cases for various reasons.
If the employers agree, the entire procedure will be anchored in collective work agreements requiring employers to pass every harassment complaint to the tribunal.