In praising the Federal Court’s recognition of the tort of sexual harassment, the Association of Women Lawyers Malaysia (AWL) hopes it would pave the way for the legislature to come up with a separate law on sexual harassment.

Hailing the court’s decision as a “fantastic move”, a representative of AWL, Samanther Meera (on the left in above picture), said: “I hope this is a cue for the legislature to take action and to have an independent sexual harassment legislation.”

This is because Meera believes the current Employment Act is not sufficient enough to cover all kinds of sexual harassment cases.

“The Employment Act only covers employer-employee relationship. So, if a third party comes into the office and a sexual harassment takes place, it does not cover that,” Meera said.