HAITU condemns the management of Life Brenthurst Clinic for dragging its feet on sexual harassment allegations
The Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (HAITU) condemns the management of Life Brenthurst Clinic in Parktown for dragging their feet on allegations on sexual harassment allegations.
One of our members is the victim of persistent unwanted sexual advances of her line manager. Over a sustained period of time, this man made advances of a sexual nature towards her, which she persistently rejected. The line manager even attempted to touch her inappropriately, more than once whilst they were on shift together which made her feel very uncomfortable at the workplace. She has repeatedly rejected his advances but he was unrelenting. This man is a sex pest and he is always trying to find excuses to be alone with her at work. He has repeatedly tried to negotiate sex with her in exchange for favours at the workplace. She was scared to report him for harassing her because he threatened her, claiming that because he is highly influential, no one will believe her because he is very connected to senior management.
Eventually, because she refused to give into her advances, the line manager started a process to try and remove and frustrate her in the workplace, by concocting charges on the claim that certain drugs ‘went missing’ during her shift. She was taken through a disciplinary hearing and then dismissed.
HAITU is defending her and a case of unfair labour practice has been referred to the CCMA where she is appealing. At the same time, she has decided to blow the whistle on this line manager because it is likely that she is not the only one and his reign of terror will continue. As a result of his actions, she is deeply traumatized and is also suffering from depression. She has been seeing a therapist in order to cope with the negative effects of the harassment.
HAITU has evidence of him making unwanted sexual advances to our member. Life Brenthurst claims they have a zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment, but they are not implementing their policy. They dragged their feet when we requested an urgent meeting with them on this matter on the 20th of June. They responded with a non-committal generic response to our email, which forced us to ambush them, by going to their offices, and demanding a meeting to urgently address this matter on the 26th of June this week.
This is why we were able to secure a meeting with them yesterday where we raised this issue. We were shocked to discover that even though they had started an investigation, the line manager was still on duty! They were interviewing possible witnesses whilst the man was around. How can they expect workers to speak freely under such circumstances? The proper way of dealing with this, is for him to be suspended pending an independent investigation into this matter. Thankfully, we managed to persuade them, and they have promised that he will be suspended, pending an independent investigation. A criminal case has also been opened at the police station against this man. The hospital has promised to keep the union updated on any developments regarding this case.
HAITU is a union which puts workers first and we will defend them with everything we have. We are revolutionizing healthcare, one hospital, and one clinic at a time.
