Sexual harassment

[Nell 23]

Dinosaur - I think what you have is a good method, like you say it allows anyone access at any time. Being notified of these documents whereabouts and their accessibility means an individual does not have to go through another member of staff to retrieve information that relates to a private and confidential issue. As in my case, on site I would of have to have gone my abuser and been subjected to the Spanish inquisition to retrieve such information.

I would have thought (but correct me if i'm wrong) to make a system like this standard, across all companies, would require some pressure from an organisation. But what then for companies who aren't registered or affiliated?

[Wax]

It is always worth checking out employment law try the Government web site. Many of these things such as equal opportunities health and safety ect are defined in law and it is not a matter of being affiliated to a organisation who apply standards but of complying with the law of the land. It has often surprised me the lack of knowledge of these things that people running companies appear to have.

[moreno]

Wax- it amazes me that there is a lack of awareness from many sources including managers regarding laws related to our profession, period. While I don't condone the attitude that "that's what it was like in my day" it is often used as an excuse to be dismissive of the sort of behaviour highlighted in the various posts. It's incredulous and despicable really. What is even more unfortunate is the fact that these sorts of individuals are in managerial posts. There is simply no room for it.

[Dinosaur]

I would have thought (but correct me if i'm wrong) to make a system like this standard, across all companies, would require some pressure from an organisation. But what then for companies who aren't registered or affiliated?

Any well-run company ought to have something like that in place, it's pretty commonplace (normal?) across the board, not just archaeology - wherever you're working always read the other contractor's noticeboards (wise anyway, its educational, fends off tea-break tedium, you get some idea what's going on around you on a busy construction site, and serious accident/fatality circulars are always worth checking since you'll be working near the same machinery at some point in your career even if not using it) - its amazing how often even dead-hard all-male builders' crews have a sexual harassment policy posted up!

Wax is right, a lot of archaeological outfits are very poor when it comes to being aware of their obligations - look at the state of a lot of PPE for instance, and how many first-aid kits have their contents regularly checked for use-by dates? [or fire-extinguishers tested, check the sticker on yours when you get to site on Monday morning, have seen them 5 years out of date before now!] For all the slagging I seem to get every time I mention ISO accreditation on here, the first aid kit's the first thing inspectors always seem to go for, a nice simple one in any cabin that they can go straight to. And all the beaurocracy has to work and be up to date, if there's claimed to be a policy on something, the document actually has to exist and be easily accessible, proper records have to kept for everything etc, so eg Nell 23's complaints would have to have been recorded, together with any responses, with a proper paper-trail...normally a pain in the **** but invaluable when things go wrong

[Dinosaur]

I would have thought (but correct me if i'm wrong) to make a system like this standard, across all companies, would require some pressure from an organisation. But what then for companies who aren't registered or affiliated?

Oh, and not an RO, so no, it doesn't actually require any pressure at all, merely the will to do things properly, certainly not from IFA which I suspect is what you're implying. There are plenty of business quality accreditation schemes out there, don't be fooled into the blinkered view that IFA is the be-all-and-end-all, only they think that

[Unitof1]

all our site first aid kits etc come in a larger box which include, amongst a selection of handy manuals on Weils desease etc, safe use of equipment, heavy lifting etc etc, a full set of all the company policies, including on sexual harassment. All employees are informed/shown where to find them and are free to do so at any time.

Costs nothing and everyone knows where they stand and exactly what to do about it/who to complain to (with alternatives if not happy with the first response) :face-thinks:

dino any chance that you could post the wording of this company policy so that other companies might consider posting it so that they can conver their backs?

[Dinosaur]

Given 'history' with BAJR, probably not, but can enquire

[kevin wooldridge]

Here is an EO policy gleaned from the internet and vaguely similar to most I have seen in UK archaeology firms

http://www.royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk/po...nities.htm

[Unitof1]

The ...will ensure that any employee who feels that she or he has been treated unfairly or subjected to direct or indirect unfair discrimination can raise the matter through the appropriate grievance procedure when every effort will be made to secure a satisfactory resolution. Any employee making a complaint of unfair discrimination will be protected from any victimisation in any form.

presumably somewhere there is an "appropriate grievance procedure" somewhere which also states what it means by every effort? Seems to me that I would want a list of all the people that could be held responsible in the organisation. Not sure if in the example of ric that that could include the county council and the prince of wales as there is a pretty complicated set up with lots of concerned bodies involved.

[Dinosaur]

Actually that's not dissimilar to ours, covers much the same points, although missing a list of named persons to complain to (site supervisor/director/PO, project manager, then in our case office administrator, then company Director)