🚀 go-pugleaf

Michael Kyba (kyba@bcu.ubc.ca) wrote:

: Steven Leffler wrote:
 
: > Derek Nalecki (naleckid@cadvision.com) wrote:
 
: > : Protection from harassment are *not* basic rights. If you feel you are
: > : being harassed by your employer you have a clear choice of leaving and
: > : going to work for competition.
: > 
: >    Excuse me?  This is the most ridiculous statement I've seen on the Net
: > in a long time.  Protection from harassment is about as fundamental as
: > rights get.

: Harassment is defined as having occurred when an individual 'feels' harassed.
: This is the definition used by the equity office, and is quite standard in the
: field.  If I tell a student that he failed the genetics exam because of
: his inability to demonstrate critical reasoning skills at a high school level,
: althought it is completely true, the student can claim to have been
: harassed.  My statement made him feel insecure about himself.  At this point,
: the equity office has to determine whether the harassment was unlawful, and
: if not whether it was done with the intention to harass.  If it is neither,
: although harassment is deemed to have occurred, nothing is done to address it.
: If it is considered intentional, then the equity office will step in with
: a formal complaint or personal meeting or some such action.  If it is considered
: unlawful, then the victem can take legal action.  

   Your comments don't seem to be particularly relevant to my point.  In
any event, your understanding of the definition of harassment and the
procedures for handling it at UBC are incorrect.  You clearly do know
something about it, but have seriously misinterpreted some of the
information.  I suggest you read the policy more carefully, or go ask the 
Equity office how cases like the one you described are handled.  You 
might be pleasantly surprised.

: As for harassment in the workplace, under this definition, which is stupid,
: but nevertheless accepted by socialists, protection from harassment is not
: a right.

   Huh??  Does this follow from the above?

:  If the harassment is unlawful, the victem can take legal action
: to seek redress.  Ie. no need for a union.

   It is true that victims have the right to seek legal redress when their
rights have been violated.  On the other hand, an internal grievance
procedure is far more efficient at handling most such claims.  Such
procedures have been used in unionized operations for years, and many
employers have adopted similar procedures for dealing with complaints from
non-union employees as well (such as the UBC Harassment policy).  It's
cheaper to sit down and talk about the problem than to fight it out in
court. 

--
                                   Steven Leffler
                                   stevenrl@unixg.ubc.ca