It is WORD’s belief that the employees of WORD are the primary means by which the goals and objectives of the organization will be met. To that end, the rights of all employees must be respected. All employees of the WORD must understand its position on harassment. By definition, harassment is any unwanted attention or action prohibited by law by someone in the workplace that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment,
including sexual harassment. The procedure for reporting and dealing with this very sensitive issue is as follows: - If a person's behavior makes an employee uncomfortable, the employee should feel free to immediately advise the person that, in the employee's opinion, the behavior is
inappropriate and that the employee would like it to be stopped.- If the staff member is not comfortable discussing the issue with ‘the person’, or if the
person fails to respect the staff member’s request, the staff in concern should report the
incident to his or her supervisor. If, for whatever reason, the staff does not feel that the supervisor is a suitable person to whom the incident could be reported, then the Executive Director or, if necessary, the President of the Governing Body or the Gender Desk may be contacted.In all instances, a prompt, thorough and, fair investigation must take place, giving careful consideration to protect the rights, privacy and the dignity of all the people involved. WORD must take those steps it feels necessary to resolve the problem, which may include verbal or written reprimand, suspension, termination or taking recourse to the police. No retaliation of any kind is to occur because an employee has in good faith reported an
incident of suspected harassment. The supervisor, or other person to whom the complaint was made, will work to establish mutually agreed upon safeguards against retaliation while attempting to mediate any sexual harassment complaint.
XII. POLICY ON CONFIDENTIALITY
Any information that an employee learns about WORD, or its members or donors, as a result of working for WORD that is not otherwise publicly available constitutes confidential information. Employees may not disclose confidential information to anyone who is not
employed by WORD or to other persons employed by WORD who do not need to know such information to assist in rendering services. The disclosure, distribution, electronic transmission or copying of WORD’s confidential information is prohibited. Any employee
who discloses confidential WORD information will be subject to disciplinary action (including possible termination), even if he or she does not actually benefit from the disclosure of such information.
XIII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FROM THE STAFF AND AGREEMENT TO THE HR
POLICIES
Every WORD staff is to read carefully the ‘Human Resource Policy’ and is to give their signature on a prescribed format acknowledging that they have understood the policy and are in agreement of the policy. Moreover, this signature is to be also in agreement to a ‘Confidentiality Pledge’ not to disclose any sensitive information that they may come to know in course of their involvement in the field or in the organization.
XIV. PERIODIC REVIEW
WORD reviews its Human Resource Policies and scrutinize its efficiency every three years.