The Gazette 1996

GAZETTE

APRIL /MAY 1996

B O OK

R E V I E W S

and sexual harassment and how to bring a sexual harassment claim. The Appendices include a copy of the Code of Practice and sample "sexual harassment policies". Whilst it is a useful book, it was disappointing that the authors did not consider defamation as it applies to claimants of sexual harassment. Frequently defamation is a major concern of both the complainant and also the employer. Also chapters four and five consider employer policies to combat sexual harassment and how to conduct an investigation concerning allegations of sexual harassment. This reviewer found the repetition in these chapters of the provisions of a disciplinary procedure and rules for investigation rather irritating. One might suggest that a lot of this text could have been condensed without losing any benefit to the reader. A considerable amount of space was devoted to the case of the Health Board -v- BC, unreported, Costello J. j High Court 19th January 1994. This is an extremely important case because it distinguished between what is commonly perceived as sexual harassment in the workplace and employers' liability in respect not | only of sexual harassment but also of 1 sexual assault in the workplace. This case held that an employer cannot be liable should a sexual assault take place in the workplace. In effect this judgment apparently limits the vicarious liability of the

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, A Practical Guide for Employers and Employees By Noel Harvey and Adrian F. Twomey, published by Oak Tree Press, paperback 189pp, £16.95. Sexual harassment was first recognised as discrimination by the Labour Court some ten years ago in the case of A Worker -v- A Garage Proprietor EE 2/1985 when the Court stated "freedom from sexual harassment is a condition of work which an employee of either sex is entitled to expect. The court will, accordingly, treat any denial of that freedom as discrimination within the meaning of the Employment Equality Act, 1977." The Employment Equality Act does not specifically refer to sexual harassment, hence there is no direct statutory provision preventing such abuses. At the end of 1994 the Minister for Equality and Law Reform published a Code of Practice on measures to protect the dignity of women and men at work. In effect this Code of Practice was issued in accordance with the European Commission recommendation and Code of Practice. Specific statutory prohibition of sexual harassment in the workplace is still awaited. This text on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace comprises seven chapters to include wide definitions of sexual harassment, a summary of sexual harassment and the law (to include useful summaries of the case law), employers' liability, their defences and claimants' remedies, a consideration of sexual harassment policies more particularly as provided for in the ESB, the conduct of a sexual harassment investigation, trade unions

Reviewing Maastricht: Issues for the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference Edited by Alan Dashwood, Law Books in Europe, Sweet & Maxwell, 1996, hardback £45. The Intergovernmental Conference 1996 (IGC) will discuss the future of the European Union. The agenda for the IGC will include EC powers and Member States powers; the Union's institutional structure, accountability and transparency ; enlargement of the Union in the context of Central and Eastern European countries, as well as Cyprus and Malta; and external relations. These themes are considered in this book. This volume represents the intellectual fruits of a series of one-day seminars organised between January and July 1995 by the Centre for European Studies at Cambridge. The tension between different visions of the future of the European Union - whether it should become a loose federation with an executive accountable in a political sense to the European Parliament, and through the Parliament to a Union-wide electorate, or whether the Union should retain its present character as "a constitutional order of States" is evident in the papers and in the discussions reported in this book. Professor Alan Dashwood, Cambridge University, in his conclusions emphasises that the IGC should not overlook the significance of the objective proclaimed by the European Coal and Steel Community Treaty (April 1951) to substitute for age-old rivalries the merging of essential interests and to create a community of peoples long divided by bloody conflicts. We Europeans have made great strides in achieving those noble objectives. Dr. Eamonn G. Hall

employer in respect of 'sexual harassment' and the employment relationship.

All in all this is a useful guide on this controversial and developing subject.

Frances Meenan

•

113