Postscript
War at work
Patrick Marnham
Mews has arrived from Peking tilfar31 factory manager found guilty has offences of sexual harassment at woinp, been executed. Reaction to this de On ment in the sex war is bound to be mixed' the one hand ... but then on the other • ie On the one hand there are several Pe°Pae in one's personal acquaintance wh°111.cinii.
would like to put on a fast boat to to since the more usual methods ad0Pte" this country appear quite inadecluate'the would make a melancholy sight at ads. quayside, a boatload of Jack the ,,;r1.' chained together until they reached no infested waters, craving for their jog glimpse of the editorial offices or Pririt, works which were formerly their Ph works hunting ground. Back at the work place the buntingbe be out, the coffee machine woul" old switched to 'free vend' and there
merry clatter in the corridors as high
heels replaced the combat boots which the 11,011-male members of the staff had been forced to wear. Little bowls of flowers would mysteriously re-appear, nails might once again be polished instead of just sharpened, knitting needles could once more be used for knitting.
On the other hand there will always be a
few wimps who consider that capital Punishment is not right, even after 31 13,ffenees, and that some less drastic solution should be tried first, perhaps until 50 offences have occurred. It would be interesting to know what other crimes at- tract a capital sentence in China. On the Mainland of this country there are only two: treason against the sovereign, the sovereign's wife, the heir to the throne or the wife of the heir to the throne — which is punishable by beheading, quite rightly and arson in Her Majesty's Dockyards. But we are not as humane as the Chinese. We do not allow our traitors to commit 31 acts of treason before we behead them. We should not be too proud to learn from an older civilisation. A graduated system of Penalties ending, in the rare cases where it was necessary, with execution would overcome many of the objections. Treason, Arson in Her Majesty's Dockyard and Sexual Harassment at Work would make a resounding list. The law should be in- troduced next year which could then be declared International Harassed Women's Year , Certainly the British attitude to this pro- OM could do with a little dusting off. The worst case of sexual harassment at work that I can recall occurred in a jeweller's Shop In, I think, Wigan. The extraordinary ng is that it only came to light by chance. .1, he situation obtaining in this place was that two high-spirited girls, with the en- nragernent of the manager of the shop, "haa. d taken to competing for his favours with
of physical strength. One day a
_Pless school leaver arrived to start his first job. These two girls thereupon decided „°. see which of them could excel in an exer- cise described subsequently in court as terotch lifting'. The lad was terrified. Even- _Ilan), things got out of hand and there were complaints from some of the customers. de manager was dismissed and he sued for "_nfair dismissal. Had he not done so none °I these scandalous events would have to light. You have to read page three —ally Telegraph to get the kind of "I set out at the considerable length it deserves. frolt is a serious omission in the news story _ „ Peking that we are not told what kind certainly factory it was. Research would almost Ar..tainly show that different jobs attracted upferent kinds of offenders. A jeweller's 0, 13 is one thing; the premises of the ,1,1and Revenue, London District 37 — to be a random example — would probably 0 quite another. Next week: Sexual harassment in the niagazM rather cone.fined offices of a satirical
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