Sexual harassment can be prevented and eradicated, only with the implementation of a comprehensive law against the act, the Joint Action Group Against Violence Against Women (JAG) said today.

JAG, comprising seven women's non-governmental organisations and one labour NGO, is responsible for the drafting of the proposed Sexual Harassment Bill.

It submitted a memorandum on the matter to the Human Resources Ministry in a ceremony at the Ming Court Vista Hotel in Kuala Lumpur today.

Zarizana Abdul Aziz, Women's Crisis Centre Legal Reform chairperson, said that legislation on sexual harassment must address two fundamental points.

"Firstly, it must require employers to pro-actively prevent sexual harassment and secondly, it must provide victims of sexual harassment with meaningful access to legal address," she said in her speech.

"With legislation, employers are compelled to implement in-house mechanisms to create a sexual harassment-free workplace," she added.

Zarizana said that amongst others, the proposed bill provides for:

- The formulation of sexual harassment policies by employers;

- The establishment of a sexual harassment committee comprising management and employees with equal gender representation;

- The appointment of a director to promote the recognition and approval of acceptable attitudes, acts and practices, to prepare guidelines and receive sexual harassment complaints; and

- The establishment of a tribunal comprising persons with legal and relevant expertise and experience which shall conduct the inquiry expeditiously.

As a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw), the Malaysian government is obliged to take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to eliminate as far as possible discrimination involving sexual harassment, said JAG.

'Good business sense'

Human Resources Deputy Minister Abdul Latiff Ahmad, who received the bill on behalf of the ministry, said that the government is serious about tackling sexual harassment at the workplace.

He said for the past two years, the ministry has been working hard to encourage employers to adopt the Code of Practice for the Prevention and Eradication of Sexual Harassment at the Workplace, launched in June 1999, by the then human resources minister Lim Ah Lek.

"We firmly believe that companies should set up proper investigation procedures and in-house mechanism to handle these cases," said Abdul Latiff.

"Eliminating sexual harassment at the workplace increases profits and ... makes good business sense," he told a group about 60 women from several non-governmental organisations who attended the event.

JAG was also pushing for the code to be legislated.

Lukewarm response

According to statistics issued by the Human Resources Ministry this month, despite the encouragement and workshops conducted on the benefits of the code, only 4,500 employers, mostly multi-national companies, have voluntarily adopted the code, said the memorandum.

This comprises approximately 1.1 percent of the 400,000 employers registered with the Social Security Organisation (Perkeso). Translated, the rate of adoption of the code is 0.56 percent per annum, the memorandum added.

Response to the code had been lukewarm, said Abdul Latiff, due to attitude and gender bias perception.

"We are doing our best to urge medium-size companies to adopt the act. We feel this will benefit the company because when sexual harassment occurs, workers suffer from low morale, skip work, and there will be a high turnover and low productivity," he said.

Abdul Latiff revealed that the ministry may add the sexual harassment clause to the Employment Act, instead of making it a separate act by itself as preferred by women's groups.

Asked when the proposed bill will be tabled in Parliament, he said there is no deadline and the bill has to be studied first.