Introduction

Harassment is a special form of discrimination.

Harassment on the basis of gender is defined as unwanted behaviour relating to a person’s gender and that has the purpose or effect of violating another person's dignity.

Harassment is acts, omissions or statements that have the purpose or effect of being offensive, frightening, hostile, degrading or humiliating. It is prohibited to participate in such harassment.

This is regulated in the Working Environment Act Section 4-3 (3): ‘Employees shall not be subjected to harassment or other improper conduct.’

Østfold University College does not tolerate sexual harassment. 
Sexual harassment has very negative consequences both for the victim and for the environment around them.

What do you do if you are subjected to sexual harassment?

Prohibition against sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is prohibited pursuant to the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Act Section 13 Prohibition against harassment:
‘... “Sexual harassment” means any form of unwanted sexual attention that has the purpose or effect of being offensive, frightening, hostile, degrading, humiliating or troublesome.’

Obligation to preclude and seek to prevent sexual harassment

Employers and managers of organisations and educational institutions have an obligation to preclude and seek to prevent sexual harassment in their area of responsibility. The Equality and Anti-discrimination Ombudsman enforces this obligation. In the consideration of whether the obligation has been fulfilled, the person who feels harassed does not have to prove that sexual harassment has taken place. Nor shall the Ombudsman assess whether sexual harassment has taken place.

Precluding harassment

By precluding is meant initiating measures aimed at preventing harassment. Examples include awareness campaigns, adoption of guidelines and establishing an internal complaint or control system.

Seeking to prevent sexual harassment

The obligation to seek to prevent sexual harassment means tackling challenges and notifications of harassment, and trying to find out what happened in order to find a solution. The objective is to stop the harassment from continuing.

‘Employers and managers of organisations and educational institutions shall prevent and stop harassment and sexual harassment in their area of responsibility.’

What is sexual harassment?

Sexual harassment is unwanted sexual attention that bothers the person subjected to the attention.

For the situation to be considered sexual harassment, it must involve ‘sexual attention’. This means that the attention must be sexually motivated or of a sexual nature. It must be emphasised that the Act applies to both men and women who are subjected to unwanted sexual attention.

Examples of behaviour that may constitute harassment:

• unnecessary physical contact / touching and groping
• personal comments about the a person’s body, clothes or private life
• sexual advances, suggestions and insinuations
• showing pornographic images, whistling or body movements with sexual undertones

Sexual harassment can be divided into three main groups:
Verbal, non-verbal and physical

The line between flirting and sexual harassment

If the attention is not reciprocated and is perceived as troublesome and unwanted, it is no longer flirting.

Sexual harassment means that the attention must be sexually motivated or of a sexual nature. The person receiving the attention must also express that it is unwanted. If the behaviour nevertheless continues, it is harassment. The person receiving the attention will decide whether it is harassment. However, it must be stressed that telling someone clearly that their sexual attention is unwanted can be complicated, for example if it concerns a student and a supervisor where there is a power imbalance.

Educational institutions have a special responsibility

The Equality and Anti-discrimination Ombudsman has the authority to check that the party responsible has done enough to preclude or seek to prevent sexual harassment, and if enough has been done to solve problems. The Act sets out a prohibition against sexual harassment, but the Ombudsman does not have the authority to enforce the prohibition against harassment. The prohibition is enforced by the courts.

Section 13 of the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Act states that educational institutions have a special responsibility:

‘Employers and managers of organisations and educational institutions shall prevent and stop harassment and sexual harassment in their area of responsibility.’

Preventive and problem-solving measures

The measures below include both the relationship between employees and between employees and students at Østfold University College.

Preventive measures

Professional ethical guidelines

• HiØ has adopted professional ethical guidelines for employees relating to their role as supervisor for students at all levels.
• Supervision situations are specifically mentioned, which means that employees must be particularly aware of the ethical responsibility such a position entails.

HSE – Internal control

Managers at all levels at HiØ are responsible for preventing unwelcome/threatening sexual attention at their respective unit, and for taking all contact concerning such behaviour seriously.

Information

• Information about these guidelines shall be given to all employees and all students.
• Professional ethical guidelines shall be incorporated into HiØ’s HR policy.
• The websites for employees and students, as well as other internal channels, should or can be used to spread information about this issue.

Training
Managers at all levels, safety representatives and SiØ Advice and Health shall be offered training in how to handle sexual harassment.

Problem-solving measures

Contact group

A contact group has been established that students and employees who experience sexual harassment can contact. The contact group comprises:

• SiØ Advice and Health (for students)
• Safety representatives
• The HR Department
• The occupational health service (for employees)

Persons who need help are free to choose which person in the contact group they want to contact.

• The contact group members shall be given professional training in the issue and in how to help the people who contact them.
• Everyone in the contact group has signed a declaration of secrecy and has a duty of professional secrecy.
• The contact persons shall act as first-line service and channel any serious cases back to the management.

Procedure in complaint cases

If the sexual harassment continues despite the person concerned having been told that the sexual attention is unwanted, it becomes a serious complaint case.

• The procedure must be selected on the basis of the nature of the case. In difficult situations, the first step is to present the case orally to one of the contact persons in the contact group for sexual harassment. Here, the complainant can get help to assess their case and, together with the contact person, make a plan for how to handle the situation from here in an expedient manner.
• If the complainant feels that the situation is serious, they should be advised to submit a written complaint.

Procedure for processing written complaint cases

• When the management at the relevant level has received a written complaint, the matter must be thoroughly investigated.
• The management is responsible for finding out what the complaint concerns and how it should be handled, for example whether the complaint should have any consequences for the accused person. The management should find out whether the accused has been involved in other similar situations.
• Case processing must be strictly confidential, but must be in writing to secure evidence if the case should develop into a serious disciplinary case.
• The management calls the parties in for individual meetings where they have a chance to comment. Both parties shall be given the opportunity to be assisted by a safety representative or other support person. The HR Department can be contacted to assist the management at the department as needed.

The measures must be proportionate to what has occurred. For cases that involve a supervisor and student, the supervisor can be relieved of certain teaching duties or from prevented from grading the student. The student can be assigned a new supervisor.

• In cases of a serious nature, the Civil Service Act Sections 25 (disciplinary sanction), 26 (summary dismissal) and 29 (suspension) could apply.
• A concrete sexual harassment case must be heard by the courts. The Equality and Anti-Discrimination Act’s provisions on strict liability in damages do not apply to sexual harassment.
• The person who has committed sexual harassment and the person responsible for the enterprise can become liable in damages pursuant to the general rules on liability in damages for negligence. A case of this nature must be brought before the courts.

Contact persons

Contact your safety representative, your manager or HR if you want to report sexual harassment. You can also contact:

• SiØ Advice and Health (for students)
• The occupational health service Stamina (for employees)

You can also notify censurable conditions through the webpage ‘Si ifra (only in Norwegian)’.

Goals for the contact persons’ work

The contact persons shall provide support, guidance and help to students and employees who have been subjected to unwelcome/threatening sexual attention. The contact persons shall be the first point of contact for people who want to talk about this type of problem with a neutral person outside the study/working environment.  Students and employees should be able to contact these persons individually and be assured that they are met with knowledge and understanding in a confidential setting.

Guidelines

• The contact person shall listen to and advise the person in relation to the problem they present.
• The contact person can provide guidance on how to submit a complaint to the relevant management or the person who has been accused. The person who has been harassed must decide themselves whether to submit a complaint and/or whether to report the matter to the police.
• The contact person can help the person who has been harassed in meetings regarding the case.
• The contact person registers all contact. All contact is reported annually to the chair of the Working Environment Committee, who is responsible for coordinating the contact persons’ work.
• The contact person can refer the person who has been harassed to other help services.
• With the exception of the people in the contact group who have a duty of professional secrecy, the contact persons shall sign a declaration of secrecy.

Revisions

• The Working Environment Committee is responsible for revising these guidelines.
• The guidelines on measures against sexual harassment at Østfold University College shall be revised every four years. In case of material changes, the revised guidelines must be approved by the board of Østfold University College.
• The guidelines were most recently adopted by the University College Board on 25 October 2012.