Senate passes workplace Harassment of Women (Amendment) Bill

Islamabad (HRNW) The Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Amendment) Bill, 2022, as amended by the Senate has been passed by the National Assembly.
The Bill was drafted by the Ministry of Human Rights to facilitate increased participation of women in the workforce and to remove the lacunas present in the protection against harassment law in Pakistan.
The Bill increases the ambit and scope of the law to include certain professions and employment models that the current legislation does not expressly mention and provides protection from harassment to people engaged in all types of work – formal and informal.
The Amendment Bill will also provide clarity with respect to different kinds of harassment that take place at the workplace in order to provide further clarity to the issue.
The Bill aims to amend the definitions provided in the Act; particularly those of “complainant”, “employee”, “employer”, “harassment” & “workplace” to remove ambiguities that litigants have faced & to increase the scope of workplace to include all forms & categories of work.
The Bill also aims to set timelines for appeals against orders of the Ombudsman under the Act.