Suspension quashed in EOJ sex harassment case

The recent overturning of a ruling by a disciplinary tribunal to suspend a senior administrator at the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) for sexual harassment has triggered a call for the swift passage of legislation to protect workers from abuse and exploitation.

The reversal hinged on procedural errors and not a quashing of the findings themselves.

Attorney-at-law Leonard Green, who represented the secretary who made the allegations, is concerned that the absence of sexual harassment legislation in Jamaica forces lawyers to “proceed along the basis of general assault and breach of contract”.

“It is important that this piece of legislation comes up quickly to protect the rights of women,” he said.

The senior administrator had been accused of groping and kissing the secretary as early as during her first week on the job in July 2019. She said the administrator made salacious comments and proffered intrusive questions about her sexual past.

“One time, he told me to jump over the table on him, and if I jumped over the table on him, that he would catch me and give me some hard sex,” she told The Gleaner.

Neither party has been named by The Gleaner.

The EOJ came under scrutiny as Glasspole Brown, the director of elections, authorised the secretary’s firing in January in the midst of hearings into the harassment claims and allowed the accused to conduct an appraisal of the very woman he was charged with targeting.

The administrator protested his innocence and appealed a two-week suspension.

Procedurally Flawed Hearing

The appeal tribunal, comprising attorney-at-law Sherene Golding-Campbell, human relations consultant Eric Morrison, and retired Justice Roy Anderson, in their judgment handed down in September, ruled that the suspension be revoked because of breaches of technicality .

“We have come to the view that the previous hearing was procedurally flawed and that the proceedings were thereby so compromised that the decision cannot stand, and those proceedings ought to be treated as a nullity,” the panel ruled.

While the panel did not change any of the findings of the facts that were presented to the first tribunal, it took issue with several issues, among them that the administrator was unaware of details of the charge until the second day of the hearing.

“... To be given details of the charge which he was to face for the first time, on the second day of the hearing, was in breach of the principle that one should be fully aware of the specific charge which one is to face so that one can prepare to face such (charge),” the panel said.

“... It is our view that the natural justice breach of only providing the appellant with the charge, the second day into the enquiry, is fatal and must result in the ‘conviction’ being overturned,” a section of the judgment read.

A three-member disciplinary tribunal, comprising labour expert Danny Roberts, Queen’s Counsel Caroline Hay, and Phillip Lewis, presided over four hearings held on December 17, 2019, as well as on January 7, 13 and 15 in 2020.

Meanwhile, Jamaica Civil Service Association President O’Neil Grant, who represented the accused before the disciplinary panel, said the senior government administrator is unhappy because his reputation has been tarnished.

“I think that one of the greatest lessons that one can learn is that when allegations of sexual harassment arise in the workplace, it is a serious situation,” said Grant.

“It must be properly investigated to determine if there is truth, attendant to the allegation,” he said.

Attorney-at-law Carla-Anne Harris Roper filed the appeal on the accused’s behalf.

A joint select committee commenced meeting on November 28, 2019, and has conducted six meetings from then to July 2, 2020. During that time, it heard 11 oral presentations and received several submissions.

Justice Minister Delroy Chuck said last week that he hopes the committee will complete deliberations on the Sexual Harassment Act 2020 by March 2021.

nadine.wilson@gleanerjm.com