Experts were invited to give recommendations on a draft code of conduct designed to prevent sexual harassment at workplaces at a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City on January 23.

Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Minh Huan said sexual harassment in the workplace was first mentioned in the 2012 Labour Code as a prohibited act, but there has been no legal document dealing with this problem in detail. Therefore, it is necessary to build a code of conduct in line with the law and Vietnamese culture, ensuring labourers’ rights and building a healthy and safe working environment, he said.

According to Lisa Wong, a senior expert of the ILO, many countries in the world have already put in place their code of conduct on those behaviours, providing businesses, trade unions and workers themselves with efficient tools to understand and deal with such acts.

Most of the participants agreed that the future code of conduct needs to specify harassment acts and how to deal with and punish such behaviours.

The workshop was held by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO).-VNA