As a young boy of around seven or eight years of age, I was sexually assaulted by a man, but as a male on this forum, i will not go further into that except to say it can as traumatic for male children and young men as it can be for young girls and young women.
However, i have entered this.thread to perhaps offer advice on assaults that take place in the workplace. Protection over the years has been slowly strengthened since the mid-1980s through such parliamentary acts as the Equal Opportunities Act, the Fairness At Work Act and even the Health & Safety at Work Act.
In that mirade of legislation, a major breakthrough came about in 2010 with the introduction of the Equalities Act that encompassed the entirety of some of the above legislation and major parts of others. Through the use of the Equalities Act and knowledge of its provisions on employee grievance procedure legislation and the rights given within it, it is much easier in these times for employees to bring forward Harassment cases against any person in a workplace whether they be senior management, line manager or fellow worker.
The above legislation dictates that all employers must offer a grievance procedure to employees that consists of:-
A) A grievance investigation following a written complaint being received from any employee.
B) A formal grievance hearing at which the employee can be accompanied by a person of their choice or a trade union official. That Hearing must also be undertaken by a person who is not a direct line manager of the employee making the grievance or involved with the day to day conduct of the employee in any way.
C) should the above hearing be dismissed by the employer, then an appeal gearing must be made available to the aggrieved employee at which the employee again can be accompanied, and a senior member of management must undertake that appeal who was not in any way involved in the first hearing.
D) Should the above appeal hearing be dismissed, then provided that the employee has at least two years continuous employment with the employer involved, then the case can be taken to an Industrial Tribunal (industrial court) for an independent adjudication on the issue.
Many cases of sexual harassment have been taken through the above procedure(s) in recent years and won by employees. Sadly, the numbers of employees taking up such grievances have not been sufficient to have alleviated such harassment in workplaces such as has been sighed in this thread which would have eliminated it from working life.
In that, until employees (of both genders) are prepared to take up their rights against harassment (sexual or otherwise) in far greater numbers then such harassment will continue. It has to be remembered that any victim concealing such harassment within themselves only sets up the next victim at the hands of the same perpetrator.
However, the above may appear complicated and in that it has to be if it is to offer equal justice to complainant and defendant in any case. The law is there to be used and until those who are subjected to sexual abuse in the workplace are prepared to make use of the current legislation, then sexual harassment (especially against women) will continue in far too many employees working lives.
The above takes resolve and determination to carry out on the part of an employee, but the legislation is in place these days that will support anyone with a genuine case. In the course of my work in recent years i have witnessed that all too often happen successfully.
