Sexual harassment threatens women working in construction

Sexual harassment remains a threat in private sector and this is mostly observed in construction works where women and girls are asked by employers to pay such kind so as to be hired.

This issue is raised among others facing the general population working in the construction sector

Emeritha from Kicukiro district whose second name was withheld by The Inspirer due to her own reasons was the victim of sex corruption. She says that this is like a necessity for employers to hire women and if they refuse to sleep with them they either denied the job or fired in incase they have been employed already

“Such problems exist, especially for us women, when we go seeking jobs at construction sites, employers request for sex before they hire us, when you deny, they don’t hire you or if you have been hired already they fire you,” she said

Emeritha added that she has stopped working since she can’t put her health in the line so as to be employed well knowing the dangers associated with  such kind of acts.

According to Evaliste Habyarimana, Secretary General of the trade union of construction workers (STECOMA), there is a need to train women and establish women councils in trade unions who will help them to know their rights.

“We plan to educate women by establishing women councils in high level trade unions, this will enable women to know their rights and give testimony about sex corruption when it happens that they are requested for that,” said Habyarimana.

In the interview with Eric Manzi on Saturday, December 23, 2017, the Secretary-General of Rwanda’s biggest trade union, CESTRAR said “You know that such issues are not officially reported by the victims, they are still keeping quite because of stigma attached, the ones we received this year said they were seeking for advice and denied to be registered in our books, the first solution is to educate the community to be able to report the cases once they happen,”

He also said that for trade union, such cases require further investigation to know if the victim has truth on the case before any other intervention goes on.

“We need to continue mobilize people to understand that there are laws protecting them as they report freely the cases as they are,” Manzi noted.

By Elias Hakizimana @philos4hakizi