New plan to help employers fight sexual harassment

Sexual harassment in the workplace should be treated seriously and investigated promptly and thoroughly.

So says the Employers’ Union, which is urging employers to make use of their internal employee representative systems to combat this problem.

This comes in the wake of a recent poll, which indicated that although sexual harassment in the workplace rarely features in the Faroese public debate, the problem still very much exists here.

The Faroese Working Environment Service defines sexual harassment as any unwanted sexually motivated behaviour directed at another person.

Integral part of staff policies

The Employers’ Union wants managements to include prevention of sexual harassment in their staff policies, for instance by actively involving their internal employee representative systems to help stamp out this problem.

Staff members are encouraged to report any such violations to their employee representative, who will then bring the matter to the management for further action.

Workplaces are also encouraged to offer support for victims of sexual harassment.

Translated by prosa.fo