Employers have up to June 15, 2018 to ensure that they implement the Employment Sexual Harassment (Prevention) Act, 2017.
This is according to Acting Assistant Chief Labour Officer (CLO) at the Labour Department, Wayne Sobers, who spoke with The Barbados Advocate recently.
He stated that the Act was proclaimed in December last year, which means this would give employers a six-month grace period to have it instituted in their organisation.
“The main thing is the policy statement against sexual harassment and there is a grace period for employers in this regard. So the Act was proclaimed in December and by the 15th of June, which is a six month period, every employer is required to develop a clear, written policy against sexual harassment in the workplace. And not only must he develop this policy statement, but he is required to present it to each employee who is already employed and to new employees who come on board.”
Another thing that management has to do is to make sure that they present the Act to each employee in a way that he/she would comprehend.