The recent barrage of high-profile sexual harassment allegations
emerging in industries ranging from film to politics to media serves as an
opportunity for travel companies, too, to reflect on where they stand on the
issue and to assess whether they are doing enough, not least because of the
unique nature of the travel business.
Jeff Ment, a travel lawyer and partner with
Connecticut-based Silver Golub & Teitell, said, "The problem that we
have in travel is that, for better or worse, there's often a sexiness about
travel, there's a glamour to travel. It's alluring. It's a fine line, but we
need to be ever so mindful that there is a line and that employees have to remain on the right side of the line."
Ment, who provides legal advice to travel companies on
myriad issues, said the fact that travel companies often have employees and
independent contractors representing them in far-flung destinations where they
are interacting with guests face-to-face, exposes them to two levels of risk
when it comes to sexual harassment allegations: people from within the company
making claims against other employees and guests making claims against the
company.
Casper Urhammer, global CEO of Contiki, a tour operator that
caters to the 18-to-35 market, acknowledged there is a line between what guests
do and want to make of their vacation experiences and what is acceptable
behavior for the numerous tour guides and employees who represent the Contiki
brand around the world.
"The thing is, we're not babysitters," Urhammer
said. "We're not that type of company that tells [customers] what to do.
Our job is to tell them what our policies are."
He added that when it comes to Contiki employees having
intimate or sexual relations with guests, "that's a no-go. If we find out
that our staff has been involved in any sexual activity or has even just gone
over the line a little bit, that's grounds for dismissal. We don't have a
tolerance policy toward that."
Paul Wiseman, the former president of Trafalgar who now
serves as president of his own corporate training company, Partner Learning
Solutions, said that when he takes on new clients, many of which are travel
companies, sexual harassment complaints or cases can arise as one of the issues
a company is grappling with or wants to be sure to avoid. While Wiseman doesn't
offer sexual harassment training himself, his advice to clients on this issue
is clear.
"My recommendation to the company is going to be
non-negotiable. They absolutely must have compulsory sexual harassment training
in their organization. I do not think that is in any way, shape or form
optional for any size company," Wiseman said.
But Ment said that for companies that truly want to avoid
having to deal with the legal, financial and image ramifications that result
from sexual harassment allegations, simply having or strictly enforcing sexual
harassment policies isn't enough anymore. The entire conversation and corporate
culture around sexual harassment need to evolve.
"This is a time for a shake-up," Ment said. "It's
not enough to simply say, 'Sexual harassment is not tolerated at this company.'
It's not enough, because you need to describe what can be viewed by others as
harassment, [through] the lens of the guest or the passenger. ... Everyone is
under the microscope now, and so we have to adapt to that, because these issues
are real. They can't be swept under the rug. They have to be dealt with
head-on."
Rather than just lecturing employees about what constitutes
sexual harassment and the consequences it can have, he said, companies should
be involving their employees in group-dynamics training and getting them to
really think about what is appropriate and why, and ultimately finding new ways
to connect with them so the issue hits home.
It's a problem that has and will continue to touch the
travel industry, just as it has other industries, Ment said. Earlier this year,
the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed charges against
three Hawaiian tourism companies under the same management that allegedly
failed to take action when employees complained about sexual harassment by
their president.
According to an EEOC statement about the suit, the
harassment dated back to 2006 and involved four male claimants who all said
they were subjected to unwanted sexual comments and advances.
"It's stuff that companies can't afford to have happen
to them in the court of public opinion," Ment said. "I think that
that's more damaging than money in some instances, because the blogging and the
social media ... can destroy the image of a company."
In an industry that is always training and preparing for the
next crisis, he said, sexual harassment should be viewed as a potential major
crisis.
"We train for bus crashes," he said. "We
train for untimely deaths on tours. We need to train for this, too, because it's
as likely ... as the things that we already train for but hope to never have
happen to us."