Former Premier Wayne Panton has labelled government’s inability to implement a new anti-sexual harassment law as an “epic failure”.
Despite having a record number of female MPs and being led by a woman, he said the new administration had failed to make the legislation a priority.
The Newlands MP, who also had responsibility for gender affairs before he was toppled as premier, unveiled a fresh draft of the long-discussed legislation in March 2023.
More than 12 months later, the bill has yet to be published and there is no word on if or when it might go to Parliament for debate.
Panton claims it was ready to go in November.
Current government ministers did not respond to repeated requests from the Compass over the past weeks for a timeline on the bill – which has been in the works in various forms now for nearly 20 years.
It was first proposed by the Business and Professional Women’s Club in 2005 after the group highlighted stalking and sexual harassment as major issues facing women in Cayman.
And Panton promised to resurrect it in 2021, following a Compass project which demonstrated that sexual harassment is extremely common and chronically underreported in the Cayman Islands.
But despite two rounds of extensive consultations, Panton was unable to get the legislation through during his truncated tenure as leader.
Bill waiting to move to next stage
The Cayman Compass reached out to Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly and her team for comment on the bill, and is still awaiting a response.
Minister Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, who now has responsibility for gender affairs, said in her International Women’s Day message on Friday that the Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill will be considered by Cabinet this month.
“This Bill seeks to provide protection for workers, clients and customers in a variety of businesses, organizations, and institutions,” she said.
Today, Panton, who now sits on the opposition benches, says the bill has been ready for publication since November and he intends to keep the pressure on to get it passed into law.
“For a Government, which includes a record number of women, which is led by a woman… to not prioritise the passage of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill represents an epic failure,” he told the Cayman Compass via text.
Panton suggested that the delay “is perhaps even more concerning that… undesirable attitudes may be regarded by many more recently as having been promoted rather than prohibited. Talk about going in the wrong direction.”
Though Panton declined to go on the record on the extended length of time it has taken to move the bill along, the Compass understands the law has faced a number of hurdles – even within the executive arm of government.
However, Panton said enacting this law is his priority.
“Similar legislation has over recent decades been implemented in other countries. Indeed, our neighbour, Jamaica, has done the same as of 2021. Their legislation has been described as ushering in concrete measures to protect the vulnerable and promote cultural change to end sexual harassment. The conscience of CIG should now insist, for similar reasons, that this Bill is published and enacted without further delay,” he said.
Under the previous draft legislation, individuals found guilty of sexual harassment would have faced fines of up to $5,000 and/or imprisonment for one year.
Complaints of sexual harassment, according to the previously published bill, would have been made by the victim, or on behalf of the victim – with his or her permission – to the Gender Equality Tribunal, which would have the power to impose penalties and remedies.
Long history
Following the work done by the Business and Professional Women’s Club’s Sexual Harassment and Stalking Task Force, in 2012 the Law Reform Commission published a draft law for public consultation. The following year, the commission forwarded its final report on supporting the Sexual Harassment Bill to the attorney general, who in turn forwarded it to the Ministry of Community Affairs.
Although no legislation was forthcoming at the time, in 2016, government released its own policy for the civil service, which set out how complaints of workplace harassment could be made and handled.
Many of the suggestions and recommendations put forward to government by the Business and Professional Women’s Club and the Law Reform Commission are included in the current proposed bill.
Compass Media, through the Cayman Compass and the Rooster Crosstalk radio show, in 2021 ran a series of stories on the prevalence of sexual harassment in Cayman.
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