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, 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.

In addition, she said, there is no independent tribunal to investigate the harassments that take place within the workplace.

“(When) an employee is harassed by an employer, or (if there is) a case involving two employees, the employer has to decide whether this warrants investigation.

“There’s too much power given to the employer to decide. So we believe we should have an independent inquiry system,” she added.

Meera also pointed out that if an employer decides that a particular case does not warrant investigation, the employee has no recourse, even if he or she is not satisfied with the investigation.

On Thursday, the Federal Court had ruled that there is a need to introduce the tort of sexual harassment into our legal system, despite no current legislation in place to award damages for sexual harassment in the workplace.

The Federal Court ruled as such in dismissing the appeal by a former Tabung Haji Risk Management Department general manager on a claim of sexual harassment by a former staff.

The matter is being seen as a landmark move in the effort to introduce safeguards and measures against sexual harrassments into the legal system.