Omari Drakes, Attorney at Law has advised Human Resource Professionals in Barbados that they are the gatekeepers until there is sexual harassment legislation.
He was speaking recently at the Human Resource Management Association of Barbados (HRMAB) seminar at the Cave Hill School of Business tackling the controversial topics of sexual harassment, sexual orientation and social media in the workplace.
Drake indicated, “In terms of Sexual Harassment, there is no specific legislation but because we don’t have any legislation does not mean that there is no recourse…. but I’m aware the Minister of Labour did say she expects to have the legislation in place before the next general elections ...I don’t know if it will happen but it is imminent and until then HR professionals are gate keepers.”
He continued, “Until we have legislation, ensure that in your handbook it speaks to conduct which can be considered sexual harassment, actually this will make the life of lawyers easier if there is a case of sexual harassment in your office, you can turn to a document and say your handbook states the following ...”
Drakes highlighted that sexual orientation issues are challenging, he admitted, “I can’t say that I have much experience in that area but this is going to be one of the more difficult things to deal with in Barbados at this stage and it is because they is no real help from the authorities, we have to rely again on Common law as with sexual harassment.”
“The challenge is that there is also a mindset that we will have to break down until we get that done, I suspect sexual discrimination based on sexual orientation will be difficult to deal with in Barbados...I believe there is legislation on the cards for that as well.”
He also touched on issues with social media. According to him, “The use of social media is a ticklish area because it depends on a case by case basis. If I’m using the office computers to go on Facebook etc. then they are well in their right to monitor what I’m doing, if I’m doing it from my personal phone to do what I want to do, you can’t restrict that unless you have a policy in place that says no use of personal cellphones between certain times etc. …”
“However, going beyond that, using the example of the infamous eyebrow girl scenario, if you are using your personal devices and you broadcast what you are doing and it gets in the public domain and it has an impact on your company, you can be dismissed ….” (NB)
