Yes / Before 2012, there was no law on sexual harassment in Malaysia. However, when the
Employment Act 1955 was amended in 2012, employers must inquire into sexual harassment
complaints, failing which a criminal penalty will be imposed. Unfortunately, the new law did
not allow a complainant to claim damages from the harasser or the employer. After more
than two decades of campaigns by women's rights groups and NGOs, the Anti-Sexual
Harassment Bill 2021 (hereinafter 'the ASHB 2021') was finally enacted and passed in July this
year. Given the novelty and absence of any academic research, this paper seeks to examine
the provisions of the Bill critically to understand its scope, coverage and broader implications
for sexual harassment victims. The paper employs a qualitative research methodology,
adopting a doctrinal approach and content analysis of the primary source, the ASHB 2021,
that would provide a deeper understanding of the legislation. The authors contend that
despite being regarded as a victim-centric law, the Bill is half-baked and inadequate to protect
sexual harassment victims due to its failure to include significant provisions on the sexual
harassment definition, the protection against victimisation and employers' obligations to
prevent and address such conduct. / The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Faculty of Law, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, which facilitated the writing and publication workshop and funded this paper.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/19613 |
| Date | 25 September 2023 |
| Creators | Hamin, Z., Hussain, F., Abdul Rani, A.R., Kamaruddin, S., Wan Rosli, Wan R. |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, Published version |
| Rights | © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com) This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non0-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode, CC-BY |
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