Sexual Harassment Laws in Nigeria: Lessons from the United Kingdom

Sexual harassment has been recognised as a social problem and has formed a significant subject for feminist research since 1970.¹ It is a widespread social malice that undermines equality at work with a negative impact on the victim’s salary, career progression and working conditions. The term was propounded by Catherine MacKinnon who largely influenced the United States law, the origin of the United Kingdom (UK) sexual harassment law. There is no agreed definition of sexual harassment, and perception varies in different contexts and is best defined by the legal consciousness of the society in which it occurs.² Therefore, the definition and perception of sexual harassment can vary from one society to the other and will be interpreted and viewed differently across different societies.

Farley defined sexual harassment as an ‘unsolicited nonreciprocal male behaviour that asserts a woman’s sex role over her function as a worker.’³ Farley’s definition portrays sexual harassment in a stereotypical manner and amplifies the view that a woman is identified first as a female in the workplace and not as a worker with an expectation that her ‘feminine functions’ precede any other function in the workplace. According to McDonald, sexual harassment is an abusive or counter-productive behaviour which has hierarchical power at its core.⁴ Unlike other abusive behaviours such as bullying, sexual harassment has a sexual undertone and can be understood as a psychological construct appraised from the claimant’s point of view.

Mackinnon defined sexual harassment as ‘the unwanted imposition of sexual requirements in the context of a relationship of unequal power.’⁵ This definition suggests that there is a relationship between the harasser and the victim normally in the context of a work relationship where the harasser is usually the employer who uses his organisational power to sexually extort his victim who is his female employee.⁶ Mackinnon divided sexual harassment into ‘quid pro quo,’ which literally means ‘this for that,’ and sexual harassment as a ‘condition of work.’ She described quid pro quo as involving sexual compliance in exchange for an employment opportunity where the employer exercises his power to compel the female employee to give sexual favours in exchange for employment.⁷ Scalia argues that it is also sexual harassment where a woman submits to the employer’s sexual advances and gains an employment benefit.⁸ The second type as a condition of work rarely involves outright sexual demands but involves making a woman’s work conditions unbearable in the form of touching and sexual jokes to humiliate or degrade her and she is harassed simply because she is a woman without any benefit given or denied in respect of her job.⁹ The basis for this type of discrimination is that the harasser has made work conditions unbearable for the employee because of their sex.¹⁰

The United Nations (UN) has recognised sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination and gender-based violence and encourages governments to legislate and implement measures to prevent it. Article 2(b) of the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women defines violence against women to include sexual harassment at work, educational institutions and elsewhere.¹¹ The International Labour Organisation (ILO) adopted the Violence and Harassment Convention No. 190 and its Recommendation No. 206 on 10 June 2019. The ILO Committee recognised that violence and harassment constitute a human rights violation or abuse and is a threat to equal opportunities and decent work, and that everyone has a right to work free of violence and harassment, including gender-based violence and harassment.¹² It also recognised that sexual harassment is a form of gender-based violence which disproportionately affects women and girls and that an inclusive, integrated and gender-responsive approach should be used to tackle it.

Nigeria, a Member State of the ILO, does not have a federal law on sexual harassment which defines and prohibits it at work. The key legislation on employment in Nigeria is the Labour Act 1990 which has been found to be inadequate, weak and outdated in addressing current issues in employment such as workplace discrimination and sexual harassment.¹³ Therefore, there is no legal protection or remedies for individuals when they become victims of sexual harassment. However, the UK, also a Member State of the ILO, has more detailed sexual harassment laws which define and prohibit it.

This article will examine the legal framework on sexual harassment at work in Nigeria and the UK with the aim of identifying the inadequacies of the Nigerian provisions and a view to learn lessons from the UK’s legal framework. International provisions on sexual harassment will also be examined with a view to confirming whether both countries comply with their obligations under international treaties and conventions. But first, a review of the theories and perceptions of sexual harassment will be carried to understand why it exists.