A survey carried out by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (Molisa) has shown that the health and education sectors faced the highest cases of sexual harassment.
Employers engaged in harassment may be fined VND50-70 million
Nguyen Thi Dieu Hong, representative of the research team of the ministry's Gender Equality Department announced the findings after they conducted a survey of over 100 people and held various group discussions.
The victims were mostly female subordinates in health and education sectors. However, receptionists, secretaries or cleaners were the most targeted.
"University students reported that they saw teachers harassing each other or harassing cleaners or students. People also reported many harassment cases when they went to take medical exams at hospitals but most of these people did not want to make a major issue of the situation. Currently we still don't have any solid regulations and that scares people," Hong said.
She further said people need to raise their awareness over the seriousness of the issue.
The new labour law, which will go into effect on May 1 will ban any kind of harassment at work. Employers engaged in harassment may be fined VND50-70 million (USD2,400-3,400). However, some people have complained that the fines were unreasonable.
Hong said the authorities need to issue detailed guidance on the problem to encourage the victims to denounce the harassers.
Lawyer Tran Dinh Hien also agreed with Hong's opinion, saying they need more detail guidance such as the classification of sexual harassment.
Pham Vu Thien, Head of the Centre for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population said the decree about administrative sanctions at workplace lacked guidance on complaints and denunciations procedures.
"The decree should affirm that the victim's identity will be protected from the media. If the authorities can't protect the victim's identity then people won’t want to file any complaint." he said.
