scholarly journals A study of the interplay between the law and organisational codes of conduct with regards to sexual harassment in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Heike Menne-Spohr
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Legal Consciousness ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policies And Procedures ◽  
The Law ◽  
Sexual Harassment Policies

<p>The aim of this research is to fill a gap in the New Zealand literature which is to investigate whether the sexual harassment legislation is being understood, implemented and monitored in organisations effectively.  This thesis explores how organisations in New Zealand are using tick-box compliance when implementing sexual harassment legislation into their employee policies and procedures documents due to the ambiguity of certain words. It looks at the role that Human Resources consultants and trade unions play, and further using the endogeneity model, the thesis explores the effect that tick-box compliance has on the legal consciousness of sexual harassment in organisations and third parties.  Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with Human Resources professional at public and private sector organisations, Human Resources consultants as well as trade union representatives who are actively involved with the implementation and management of sexual harassment policies in the workplace.    It was found that organisations had implemented sexual harassment policies and procedures several years previously and that these had not been changed significantly due to a lack of change in the law itself. The findings also indicate that the organisations implement sexual harassment polices using a tick-box approach and they do not necessarily fully understand the legislation. It was suggested that the emphasis had shifted from sexual harassment to bullying and that the third parties like trade unions and Human Resources consultants see more cases of this than sexual harassment.   The thesis concludes that although organisations have sexual harassment policies and procedures, these are outdated and are not part of the legal consciousness of organisations, trade unions and Human Resources consultants. The ambiguous nature of the wording in the law itself and the lack of guidelines for organisations on how to implement them has resulted in tick-box compliance and organisations do not know if their policies are effective or not. Further the low penalties for sexual harassment behaviour means that there is no incentive for sexual harassment victims to raise complaints.</p>

scholarly journals A study of the interplay between the law and organisational codes of conduct with regards to sexual harassment in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Heike Menne-Spohr
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Legal Consciousness ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policies And Procedures ◽  
The Law ◽  
Sexual Harassment Policies

<p>The aim of this research is to fill a gap in the New Zealand literature which is to investigate whether the sexual harassment legislation is being understood, implemented and monitored in organisations effectively.  This thesis explores how organisations in New Zealand are using tick-box compliance when implementing sexual harassment legislation into their employee policies and procedures documents due to the ambiguity of certain words. It looks at the role that Human Resources consultants and trade unions play, and further using the endogeneity model, the thesis explores the effect that tick-box compliance has on the legal consciousness of sexual harassment in organisations and third parties.  Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with Human Resources professional at public and private sector organisations, Human Resources consultants as well as trade union representatives who are actively involved with the implementation and management of sexual harassment policies in the workplace.    It was found that organisations had implemented sexual harassment policies and procedures several years previously and that these had not been changed significantly due to a lack of change in the law itself. The findings also indicate that the organisations implement sexual harassment polices using a tick-box approach and they do not necessarily fully understand the legislation. It was suggested that the emphasis had shifted from sexual harassment to bullying and that the third parties like trade unions and Human Resources consultants see more cases of this than sexual harassment.   The thesis concludes that although organisations have sexual harassment policies and procedures, these are outdated and are not part of the legal consciousness of organisations, trade unions and Human Resources consultants. The ambiguous nature of the wording in the law itself and the lack of guidelines for organisations on how to implement them has resulted in tick-box compliance and organisations do not know if their policies are effective or not. Further the low penalties for sexual harassment behaviour means that there is no incentive for sexual harassment victims to raise complaints.</p>

scholarly journals Safe harbour: Should we be worried? An analysis of Clause 20 of the Harmful Digital Communications Bill, and its application to the law of defamation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jordan Lipski
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Strict Liability ◽  
Digital Communications ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Online Content ◽  
Safe Harbour ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Law ◽  
Defamation Law ◽  
Safe Harbours

<p>Liability of internet intermediaries for content created by third parties is a contentious area of defamation law. Recently, the law in New Zealand has begun to depart from English law, and move closer to strict liability. Parliament has responded with a ‘safe harbour’ in clause 20 of the Harmful Digital Communications Bill, which will provide online content hosts with conditional immunity from liability for content created by others. The author supports the creation of a legislative safe harbour for internet intermediaries, but highlights a number of deficiencies with clause 20 as currently drafted. This paper analyses the existing law, including possible defences, and clause 20. It also looks to other jurisdictions’ safe harbours, and concludes with recommendations on how clause 20 ought to be improved.</p>

scholarly journals Sexual Harassment In The Workplace: Europe

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
John Lehman
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Way

Rebecca McDonald returned to her office in Leverkusen Germany still angry from her meeting with Bertina Knies in Human Resources. Rebecca had presented an open-and-shut sexual harassment complaint, clearly supported both by company policies and the Law, and Frau Knies had not only refused to do anything about it, but had not very politely insinuated that the whole thing was Rebeccas fault. The next step would probably be to appeal to Human Resources back in Detroit, since the Germans clearly had no understanding of the way things should work in a modern society.

scholarly journals AN ANALYSIS OF THE GOOD FAITH BARGAINING PRACTICE IN THE TRADE UNION RECOGNITION PROCESS: REFORM OF THE MALAYSIAN TRADE UNION LEGAL FRAMEWORK

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 501-524
Author(s):  
Siti Suraya Abd Razak ◽  
Nik Ahmad Kamal Nik Mahmod
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Good Faith ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Recognition Process ◽  
Primary Focus

The trade union recognition process is a pre-requisite to the collective bargaining action of a trade union. The recognition is important to ascertain the competency of a trade union and the acceptance by the workers to represent them in the collective bargaining action with the employer. However, the ambiguities in the existing legislations on the trade union recognition process in Malaysia and the anti-union practices of the employer are currently depriving the workers of their rights to negotiate for better working conditions. The primary focus of the present work is to identify the weaknesses of the recognition legal framework and the anti-union practices of employers in the recognition process of trade unions. Secondly, is to critically analyse the good faith bargaining practice in other countries and its significance to the recognition process in Malaysia. To explore the anti-union tactics perpetrated by employers, semi-structured interviews have been conducted to analyse the trade unions’ experience in their recognition claims. This research employed a qualitative approach as the instrument to study the good faith bargaining practices in the Australian and New Zealand labour law framework. The findings reveal that the good faith bargaining practices in Australia and New Zealand have improved the odds for trade unions to represent the workers in negotiating collective agreements. The study finally concludes that in order to reform the recognition process of trade unions in Malaysia, the good faith bargaining practice should be implemented in the nation’s industrial relations law framework.

scholarly journals The effectiveness of sexual harassment policies and procedures at higher education institutions in South Africa

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Joubert ◽  
Christo Van Wyk ◽  
Sebastiaan Rothmann
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Policies And Procedures ◽  
Sexual Harassment Policies

Orientation: Sexual harassment policies are generally in place in higher education institutions without any indication of its effectiveness as determined by the awareness of the policy.Research purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the awareness levels of academic staff members at higher education institutions in South Africa of sexual harassment policies and procedures in their institutions.Motivation for the study: A number of high profile court cases emphasised the need for effective policies to reduce the incidence of sexual harassment complaints.Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional survey design was conducted amongst 161 academic staff members, representing 10 higher education institutions in South Africa. The measuring instrument that was used is the Sexual Harassment Questionnaire (SHQ) that was developed specifically for this study.Main findings: The results showed that despite indications that sexual harassment policies do exist and that they are regarded as effective tools in addressing sexual harassment, the implementation of such policies is not effective and few academic staff members received training and/or guidance on the utilisation of the policy. Significant correlation coefficients were found between the elements of an effective policy and between population group and some of the elements.Practical/managerial implications: Employers across the board should regularly conduct an audit to determine the level of awareness of sexual harassment policies and procedures and plan interventions.Contribution: No other study in South Africa attempted to measure the awareness levels of academics and its impact on the management of sexual harassment.

scholarly journals On the Record: Nicolette Naylor & Sibongile Ndashe

2018 ◽  
pp. 59-66
Author(s):  
Kelley Moult
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Executive Director ◽  
Ford Foundation ◽  
The Law ◽  
Sexual Harassment Policies ◽  
Strategic Litigation

Recent local and global developments have turned the spotlight on the role of law in addressing sexual harassment in the workplace. Almost four decades after feminist legal scholars pushed for law that recognises that sexual harassment constitutes a form of discrimination that is legally actionable, it is important to take stock of the success and limits of the law. In a context where the law is increasingly accused of complicity in shielding abusers by (mis)applying sexual harassment policies to exonerate the perpetrators or fail to hold institutions to account where they claim that their hands are tied because complainants do not want to lay formal complaints. Nicolette Naylor (Director, Ford Foundation for Southern Africa) and Sibongile Ndashe (Executive Director: The Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa [ISLA]) discuss the role of the law against the backdrop of the successes of campaigns like the #MeToo movement that encourage survivors to speak out outside of the by unmasking and publicly naming perpetrators. The conversation was originally presented as an ISLA Conversation between Nicolette and Sibongile on 10 July 2018 in Johannesburg.

scholarly journals DoorWOmen & Gendering the Door: An Explorative Study of Women's Experiences of the Bouncer Occupation within New Zealand's Night-Time Economy.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ashliegh Sargison
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Night Time ◽  
Gendered Violence ◽  
Recruitment Methods ◽  
Explorative Study ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Experiences Of Women

<p>Patriarchal norms and misogynistic attitudes often result in women’s exclusion from positions of power in institutional structures through the use of sexual harassment, discriminatory recruitment methods and exclusion from social circles. Traditionally, previous research on bouncers has focused on the occupation’s close affinities with violence and the domination of men, ignoring the benefits and experiences of women in door-work. This research addresses an important literature gap within the context of New Zealand, by exploring how women working as bouncers in New Zealand’s Night Time Economy (NTE) experience and navigate their occupations, based on stereotypical assumptions that women are unsuitable to bouncing. Applying a feminist lens, this qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews with twelve women who had experience working as bouncers in New Zealand’s NTE. This study found that gendered violence, discrimination and misogyny were a routine and ‘expected’ part of being a female bouncer, and uncovered how the women in this study constructed malleable performances of gender to do their work. These experiences profoundly impacted their feelings of safety in the workplace, which may point to reasons why women still remain the minority within the bouncer occupation. Based on these findings, this research concludes that women in door-work are faced with a paradox where femininity is simultaneously resisted in a masculine occupation, but where they are expected to adhere to men’s expectations of appropriate gender norms within the workplace. This study therefore exposes the difficult and highly gendered terrain women in door-work are expected to navigate, and emphasises the need to address misogynistic attitudes and gendered violence within the workplace, the wider NTE and beyond.</p>

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