12 September, 2024A scathing labour inspection report from the ministry of labour and social security condemned sexual exploitation by a general manager at Dharm Cutting Works Botswana – a diamond cutting and polishing company based in Gaborone.
Dharm’s whose head office is in India which is its top sourcing country for the diamonds.
After a complaint was made by Botswana Diamond Workers Union (BDWU), an IndustriALL affiliate, to the ministry, labour inspectors carried out an investigation at Dharm and interviewed six women workers who were sexually harassed. The inspectors also interviewed three women, who have since left the company because of the sexual harassment by the manager who has since been suspended pending an investigation.
According to the inspectors’ report, the forms of sexual harassment brought against the general manager included rape, inappropriate touching and quid pro quo sexual harassment – which happens when employment, pay, and benefits are promised on condition of submitting to unwelcome sexual advances. In one of the incidences, cited in the report, the general manager sexually harassed some diamond polishers after asking them to clean his house. The inspectors said this violated the National Industrial Relations Code of Good Practice (Models Procedures and Agreements) 2006 which defines sexual harassment as “persistent, unsolicited, and unwanted sexual advances or suggestions by one person to another. There is a clear case of sexual harassment, and the perpetrator is the general manager.”
The inspectors wrote that the manager used his financial power to sexual harass the workers in violation of even the company’s human resources manual. The manual, which aims to stop sexual harassment, states that “sexual harassment includes conduct of a sexual nature, including unwelcome jokes, touching, comments, pornographic displays and the like which unreasonably interferes with an employee’s ability to perform his or her job because of the hostile environment.”
Further, the inspection condemned the inclusion of the general manager in the investigation of the sexual harassment and questioned how an alleged perpetrator can play a dual role as “player and referee.” “By sitting through the proceedings of an investigation against him he pre-empted the findings of the investigation and rendered the process null and void,” states the report which was sent to Dharm.
Beside sexual harassment the inspection report also mentioned that Dharm had restored workers benefits that it had withdrawn without engaging with the union.
Dominic Obusitse Mapoka, BDWU chairperson said:
“While we welcome the action taken by Dharm against the general manager, we look forward to the adoption of workplace policies to curb sexual harassment. As a union, we are hoping for an amicable solution on other issues that we have raised with the ministries of labour and home affairs.”
“It is shameful that a general manager who is supposed to provide oversight on sexual harassment is the perpetrator. We applaud the BDWU for standing up for the rights of women workers against sexual harassment and for taking up this issue with the ministry of labour and social protection,”
said Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub-Saharan Africa.
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