While Jamaica, one of the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) leading tourism destinations, has frequently made international headlines as a place where tourists are vulnerable to harassment and even sexual assault by hotel staff, a Jamaica Gleaner story earlier this week is reporting that these days, it is staff members who are increasingly reporting instances of sexual harassment by guests, at some of the country’s “top hotels”.
Equally worrying, is the assertion in the Gleaner story regarding what would appear to be a practice of ‘killing’ many of the incidents of sexual harassment, with staff reportedly being threatened with dismissal should they speak out about their ordeals.
In a country where tourism is a major part of the engine room that ‘fires’ the country’s economy, the notion that all is not well in terms of the service-driven relationship between staff and guests at hotels in Jamaica has triggered the attention of the island’s Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, who, the Gleaner says, has undertaken to tackle the problem through the publication of a Guide Book for the sector later this year. Even then, however, enforcement could be a challenge in the face of what, in many instances could well be blatant indifference to hotel rules by persistent guests.
The story, published in the Sunday August 25th issue of The Gleaner and headlined “Five-Star Horror,” suggests that what does not make the practice easier to tackle is what appears to be an ‘unwritten policy’ in which instances of such abuse “are seldom discussed or reported for fear of embarrassing guests and the hotel, or for fear of victimisation.” This has reportedly been placing hotel staff under pressure to walk, what often is a precariously fine line between the cordiality and politeness that is part of the service that they are expected to provide and unwittingly crossing that line, leaving themselves vulnerable to sexual harassment. Women hotel workers, particularly, have complained about instances of sexual harassment that begins with flattering compliments from male guests but frequently goes further.
Last week Minister Bartlett was quoted as saying that what has become an ongoing problem has led to a review of the sector, resulting in a manual being compiled on tourism ethics and behaviour of workers towards guests and guests towards workers. The intended action follows what Bartlett says “are some gaps in relationships, behaviour patterns, and also in terms of sanctions.”
According to the Gleaner report, the Jamaica Tourism Minister has acknowledged the need for the sector “to act with a little more haste to build out the areas of behaviours that are unacceptable and sanctions relating to it – for both workers and guests.” In pursuit of new rules that re-draw the lines in terms of worker/guest relations at hotels, Jamaica could be walking a tightrope since any miscalculation could backfire indirectly on the country’s tourism industry. The anticipated new manual, the Gleaner says, “should be ready by mid-December, and it will serve to amplify moral and ethical practices, as well as legal and human rights which should have already been implemented by hotels.”
Hotel workers, the Gleaner says, point accusing fingers at “mainly older men from other countries,” whom they says, “not only hissed sexual and racial slurs at women but in some instances grope, hug, kiss or gyrate on unsuspecting visitors.” One protesting worker is quoted as saying that for the most part, managers “turn a blind eye” to such incidents. It appears that the problems of sexual harassment frequently take a toll on hotel and resort workers in some establishments to a point where they become “so fearful that they always inform other staff members of their whereabouts and avoid the many dark and unlit spaces around the property.”
The issue of sexual harassment of hotel workers in Jamaica is, it seems, not confined to female workers. The Gleaner report says that “male effeminate hotel and resort workers” can also be vulnerable to harassment. In one instance involving a male worker, the Gleaner says that “because of his speech and deportment, the homosexual guests would openly touch and grope his buttocks, call him derogatory names, and even call the front desk asking for him specifically.” In his exchange with the Gleaner, the male worker is reported as saying that the management of the hotel would accede to guests’ requests to engage him directly even though they (the management) knew that he was being molested.
In an attempt to secure a perspective on the situation in the hotel industry in Guyana, the Stabroek Business shared the Gleaner story with a middle-ranking manager at a local hotel. “It may not be as bad here, but yes, there are incidents,” she said. Asked whether she was aware of a local hotel policy pertaining to protocols associated with relations between workers and guests the informant told us that while “these are things that we are briefed about, I do not believe that that can hold off guests who are determined to harass hotel staff. It is a matter of what the hotel will stand for.”
Asked about the manner in which complaints by workers of harassment are treated, the informant told Stabroek Business that “it is the same as everywhere else. It is not going to be easy to get management of a hotel to expose a good customer except the matter is really serious, like rape, for instance. In some cases, if the incident is not particularly serious the workers themselves don’t bother to report it.”
And according to the local management employee “there may be instances in which careless hotel workers actually encourage that kind of thing by their own actions. However, when you work at a hotel long enough you learn how to handle yourself in a manner that makes it more difficult for that sort of thing to happen to you.”
Stabroek Business understands that training for hotel workers includes directives on how to interact with guests that set boundaries for interaction with between staff and guests though the informant told us that in instances where hotel workers “actually don’t mind the attention of a particular guest, there is little that the management can do about that.”
Allegations of alleged sexual assaults on tourists have been a long-standing issue plaguing the Jamaican hotel industry and there have been persistent media reports of high-profile hotels and resorts on the island having to fight determined battles to stave off being black-listed by visitors to the island. Back in November last year a report published in the Detroit Free Press which the Stabroek Business was unable to verify cited “State Department statistics” in its assertion that “an estimated one American is raped a month.” The Detroit Free Press report further states that “multiple victims have come forward with stories about cover-ups, confidentiality agreements and payoffs by resorts looking to protect their reputations and revenue.”
