Tomorrow (Friday Feb 20), PBS will be airing a special investigation report about the sexual harassment of teens in the workplace (if you click the link you can see and hear a video preview of the special). Although the report details the stories of young women in the United States, the subject of teen harassment in the workplace is just as topical in Canada.
According to the PBS site, the report:
"..tracks the journey to justice for teens [like those whose stories are documented in the show] and examines how the issue impacts hundreds of thousands of teenagers across the country -- many of whom don't know how to report workplace abuse, or to even recognize when their bosses cross the line."
While I don't have any statistics in hand to indicate the prevalence of teen sexual harassment in the workplace in Canada, certainly, human rights commissions in this country have it on their radar screen. The Manitoba Human Rights Commission, for example, has targeted youth for a number of years now by holding annual Youth Conferences designed to ensure youth in Manitoba are adequately educated about what their human rights are and how to go about enforcing them. Moreover, the Commission has on its website a useful publication entitled "The Rights of Youth: On the Job" which details, among many other issues of importance to youth, how to recognize harassment and what to do if it is being experienced in the workplace.
