Anti-harassment workplace charter approved in Saudi

A charter criminalising harassment at work-place has been approved authoritatively in Saudi Arabia.

Ahmed Al-Rajhi, Kingdom's Ministry of Labor and Social Development embraced the 12-point report, which characterizes harassment as being “any action, deed, word or sign with sexual implications in the workplace by any means including social media tools”.

Under article 12, these sexual connotations will be viewed as harassment whether they occur inside the workplace during the working hours or outside.  The charter will likewise be applied to managers, senior authorities or some other individuals related to the ministry, so as to protect trainees or job seekers.

Article 4 calls for avoiding gender mixing in the ministry’s offices and government departments as much as possible so as not to lead to harassment.

Under article 5, a male employee shall keep the door of his office open when meeting a woman colleague so that other people should be able to see them.

Article 6 says men and women employees should never talk about close to personal issues seriously or jokingly.