Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

Minister of Justice Senator A.J. Nicholson yesterday urged members of the labour force to embrace restorative justice and reduce the pain and hurt that many persons in workplaces grapple with daily.

Restorative justice is an approach to justice that focuses on repairing the hurt that has been caused by crime, by holding the offender responsible for his or her action. This is done by providing an opportunity for those directly affected to find a resolution that enables restoration and healing.

"There are going to be situations where there is sexual harassment (in the workplace). It happens (and) we are not going to bury our heads in the sand. We know that there are persons in every work situation that hurt other persons," Senator Nicholson said during the Life of Jamaica (LoJ) Spanish Town branch 30th Annual Sales Award.

Sexual harassment

He suggested that, when issues such as sexual harassment occur in the workplace, the person who committed the harm should confront the individual who was hurt and talk about it.

"So that, at the end of the day, the person who has been hurt feels that he had got some kind of compensation' not in monetary terms but simply in the phrase I am sorry'. And the person who did the harm would even feel better because he has said to the victim, 'I am sorry', he told the LoJ employees at the ceremony, held at the Terra Nova Hotel, St. Andrew.

He added: "I commend to you these principles we are trying to establish in our justice system. I commend to you that kind of approach when harm is done to you in the workplace."

Senator Nicholson, who is also the Attorney-General, said there is a lot of hurt in Jamaica. "And the reason is that a lot of blood has flowed in Jamaica for the past too many years, and there has to be some reconciliation."