Federal Ombudsman penalizes five private employees in harassment case

ISLAMABAD: A total of Rs 2.7 million has been imposed on five officials of a private company in a federal ombudsman harassment decision.

According to the decision, Rs 540,000 of the fine amount will be deposited in the government treasury, while Rs 2.16 million will be paid as compensation to the complainant.

According to the documents, the complainant, who was working as an assistant product development manager in a private chemical company, had filed a petition with the Federal Ombudsman for Anti-Harassment, alleging that various officials of the company behaved inappropriately with her, had unprofessional conversations, invited her to meet outside the office and on one occasion held her hand while showing her product samples.

The complaint further alleged that some officials also took steps such as preventing her from pursuing the complaint, not maintaining CCTV records, not constituting an anti-harassment committee in the organization as per legal requirements and later allegedly adopting threatening behavior.

The Federal Ombudsman’s Harassment Decision stated that the complainant’s personality, dress or social behavior cannot be made part of the case. The decision clarified that good manners or polite behavior cannot be considered consent, while delay in continuing employment or filing a complaint cannot be used as an argument against the complaint.

According to the decision, the accused denied all the allegations, however, the Federal Ombudsman, after reviewing the available evidence, witness statements and records, declared the allegations of harassment and retaliation as proven.

The Federal Ombudsman has directed the concerned company to pay the complainant’s experience certificate, clearance, salary and other dues within 15 days, while the anti-harassment committee in the organization should be reconstituted within 30 days as per the law.