In spite of having a law, there remains confusion about what constitutes sexual harassment at the workplace, which incidents would come under the purview of the organization, and what can one do if faced with harassment. Going through the anecdotal incidents that have come up in social media, we present six scenarios, where experts clarify the grey areas.
A co-worker propositions you online—using a messaging service like WhatsApp—asking for sexual favours, professes lust or sends inappropriate images of himself. You refuse to respond or ask him to stop, but he persists. Is this sexual harassment at workplace even though this is happening online?
This would definitely be sexual harassment as any virtual space or medium like messaging service, blogs, social or professional networking sites used by colleagues to interact, would fall under “any place visited by the employee arising out of employment”, says Shivangi Prasad, partner, POSH (Prevention of sexual harassment) at Work, a firm that assists in complying with the law on sexual harassment at workplace.