Love, sex, romance, and harassment in the workplace

One of the most attended and most often demanded among the many seminars and workshops that I conduct every week for so many companies and conglomerates,  as in-house learning sessions for managers, supervisors, HR, and personnel staff and even union leaders and employees, in general, is the session on Love, Sex, Romance, and Sexual Harassment in the Work Place. The approach that we use is both legal and behavioral. We always explain that human behavior in corporate settings and in inter-personal relationships are brought about by behavioral causes that impinge on human psychology. But the effects and implications have definite relation to law and the legal principles of offenses and penalties. People learn a lot and enjoy the sessions immensely. My hands are full and my schedules are nerve-wracking. But I enjoy doing what I do.

In this column, we shall focus on the legal dimension of it. We stress that the Labor Code considers it a just cause to terminate employment for employees to commit SERIOUS MISCONDUCT. One offense that falls under this just cause is sexual misconduct, immorality, and sexual harassment. The Supreme Court has allowed the dismissals of business executives and managers, and even rank-and-file workers for committing some sex-related offenses, like acts of lasciviousness, attempted rape, seduction of minors, and violations of the Ant-Sexual Harassment Law. As long as the erring employee is granted due-process, when found guilty, he will surely lose his job, forfeit all benefits and exit dishonorably. Even if the victim does not complain, when done inside company premises, management can initiate charges based on facts.

In the leading case, involving famous food chain, a top manager lost his job for his impropriety in driving to a motel a young subordinate and her boyfriend, against the girl's will. In a pharma company, a sales manager was kicked out from his job for sexually assaulting an attractive medical representative who boldly defended herself against the sexual attack of her boss. The woman filed her complaint and her erring boss was dismissed into ignominy. In an electronic manufacturing firm in Laguna, a male superior and his female subordinate committed sexual act inside the room of his boss, at a time when the two should be working in the graveyard shift. They were both married but not to each other, and they did it on top of the office table, after drinking liquor to perk up their sexual appetite. What is more blatant was that they did it while a third employee witnessed the act, from the time it commenced until it was consummated. All of them lost their jobs.

The law is even stricter when it comes to teachers and employees in the academe. Two teachers in a technical school in Bulacan were both dismissed because of their amorous, if scandalous, romantic relationships inside the campus, which scandalized the students and aroused the anger and resentment of both the owners and other faculty members. They both filed cases of illegal dismissals. But the case was dismissed. In Bohol, there was a Catholic school, where its principal was sexually and romantically involved with a pretty minor pupil. He was forthwith kicked out. His wife who was also teaching there was not given any teaching load for trying to cover up the impropriety of her husband. There are many sexual offenses involving even the top state university in the country when one of its professors lured young girls into his house and raped them, one after the other, after taking nude photos of his hapless victims.

[email protected].