DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WORKPLACE HARASSMENT AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Harassment is an act of systematic, unwanted and annoying action of one party or a group, it also
which includes threat or demands. Sexual harassment and workplace harassment appears to be
co-related to each other but are very different from each other in terms of scope and ambit. In
India, there is no such laws which penalizes the workplace harassment; but there are many
instances where in Indian judiciary has recognized workplace harassment as an offence. The
Supreme Court in its landmark judgment "Vishaka & Ors. Vs State of Rajashtan" had laid down
the guidelines making it mandatory for every employer to provide a mechanism to redress
grievances pertaining to workplace sexual harassment and enforce the right to gender equality of
working women.

The wide-ranging types of workplace harassment can be loosely categorized into emotional and
physical abuse. In the physical abuse there are two kinds i.e, sexual assault and workplace
violence.

Workplace violence is defined as physical threats and assaults targeted at employees. While in the
case of emotional, it is unnoticeable and also viewed as being more socially acceptable. Naturally,
emotional harassment in the workplace gets less attention than physical harassment in the
workplace, which perpetuates the issue of emotional harassment in the workplace.

There are two types of sexual harassment that are legally recognised:

 Quid pro quo sexual harassment: It occurs when an employee gets on the promotion track or
even gets to keep his/her job based on if the employee submitted to or rejected sexual
advances or other types of inappropriate sexual comments.

 Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment: This type of sexual harassment occurs when a co-
worker or supervisor in the workplace makes sexual advances or comments to an employee
that, while not affecting promotions or the future of the employee’s job, makes the working
environment of the employee offensive and hostile.

Some instances of the hostile environment sexual harassment can be:

 Personal questions of a sexual nature,
 Vulgarities and other offensive language,
 Physical conduct that is sexual or degrading to any reasonable person,
 Any sexually explicit or offensive picture or literature that is plain site of other
employees.

Identifying Workplace Harassment:

Workplace Harassment is verbal or physical conduct that shows hostility or aversion toward
an individual because of that person's race, skin color, religion, gender, national origin, age, or
disability, and that:

 has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work

environment
 has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with the individual's work
performance
  otherwise adversely affects the individual's employment opportunities

When Harassment turns to Sexual Harassment-

Attraction between employees should be a private matter between the employees, so long as it
does not cross the boundary between welcome conduct and harassment. To determine
whether sexual conduct in the workplace amounts to sexual harassment, distinctions must be
made between sexual advances that are:

 Invited: If the conduct is welcome, harassment has not occurred but could cause
difficulties down the line if an office environment goes unpleasant.
 Uninvited but welcome: Again, while there is no harassment, the potential for
harassment could exist if a relationship between two employees breaks up.
 Offensive but tolerated: Just because an employee does not make a complaint does
not mean that harassment is not occurring — if you see it or hear of it, put a stop to it.
 Flatly refused: This is clearly harassment and should be handled accordingly.

Instances of Sexual Harassment are:

 Pinups in the workplace: Pinups containing sexual material (such as centerfolds) can
create a hostile work environment. Don't allow these in the workplace.
 Asking a co-worker for a date: This by itself is not harassment. But if the person
refuses the offer, continued asking can become harassment and should be stopped if a
complaint is made.
 Rude treatment of women: A supervisor who treats women rudely, or who constantly
demeans the ability of women to perform work, can be guilty of sexual harassment
since adverse actions are being taken on account of the employees' gender.
 Verbal abuse and jokes: Comments about a person's appearance or jokes of a sexual
nature can constitute harassment if they occur often and are unwelcome. Every
Organisation should make a policy to stop all types of sexually oriented comments in
the workplace.

From all the instances it is concluded that, the Workplace and sexual harassment are both
unwanted and offensive. They both leave the person feeling demeaned, intimidated or
embarrassed. They both go beyond the bounds of normally accepted behaviour. While one has
sexual overtones, the other is a form of discrimination resulting from prejudice.