75% sexual harassments at work go unreported

Only 25 per cent of the sexual harassments at work in Finland are reported to supervisors or company representatives, found a recent survey.

Young female employees are common victims of workplace sexual harassments, said a press release quoting the report of the survey conducted by the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK).

It is worrying that only a small number of sexual harassments are reported, said EK Chief Executive Jyri Häkämies, adding, an atmosphere should be ensured at every workplace so that the employees have the courage to inform the employers about such harassments and measures can be taken against the culprits.

The survey found 60 per cent of the harassments were perpetrated by clients while co-workers were involved in 36 per cent and supervisors in 16 per cent of the incidents of harassment.

The survey conducted in January interviewed 2,128 people aged 18 to 64. It found 25 per cent of the female respondents aged less than 25 years were harassed in the previous two years while six per cent of the female respondents aged more than 60 years said they had been harassed sexually at work.