MINISTER of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange says the commencement date of the Sexual Harassment (Protection and Prevention) Act, which was passed in 2021, will be set for Monday, July 3, 2023.

Grange, who was making her contribution to the 2023/2024 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, said she was again putting everyone on notice to prepare for the implementation of the sexual harassment law.

Under the law, workplaces and institutions are required to issue sexual harassment policies and bring those policies to the attention of workers. The policy should advise how complaints of sexual harassment should be reported and addressed.

“I use this opportunity to remind every employer and person in charge of an institution, and landlords, of their responsibility. And certainly the institutions and the companies [are being reminded of] their responsibility to ensure that the policy statement required under the Sexual Harassment Act is prepared and brought to the attention of each worker, client, student, resident, ward, inmate, patient or member as the case may require because the law says once the Act is enforced the commencement date will be 12 months after we have put the Act in force,” she said.

She noted the the ministry, through its Bureau of Gender Affairs, has been holding sexual harassment sensitisation sessions with public and private organisations, schools, community-based organisations, and faith-based organisations, to help prepare them for implementation of the law.

“The bureau has also been assisting organisations to develop or revise the anti-sexual harassment policies, in keeping with the law,” she said.

Grange noted that at the same time, the ministry has been working to put the mechanisms in place to investigate and adjudicate complaints of sexual harassment.

“This has included the recruitment of investigators and the appointment of the panel to hear each case. We have already hired four sexual harassment investigators, a senior investigator, and three other persons to support her. We have also done several sensitisation sessions with companies across Jamaica,” she said.

The law also establishes the Sexual Harassment Tribunal, for whose membership Cabinet’s approval will be sought in another two weeks.

The tribunal will hear and determine the veracity of complaints of sexual harassment at the workplace and other institutions, and will adjudicate on complaints by a worker of the employer’s failure to act on such complaints.

Grange further urged the public to take sexual harassment seriously.

“It is not a simple matter but [a] rather serious crime that affects quality of life by creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment,” she said.