CAPE TOWN - Gender-based violence activist June Dolley Major has vowed to sleep outside the Clicks Group office in Woodstock until someone receives her memorandum calling for the company to stop doing business with Heart FM until a senior manager embroiled in sexual harassment allegation is removed from their employ.
The Clicks Group however said they had no current marketing campaigns on Heart FM.
“The last Clicks advertisements on the station were aired on January 21, 2022. Clicks Group does not condone violence against women. Clicks Group conducts various programmes to raise awareness of GBV issues and to encourage people to speak out when they are aware of domestic abuse or GBV in their families or communities and also provides access to support measures for employees who are victims of GBV,” Clicks head of marketing Melanie van Rooy said.
This follows reports last year that an employee had lodged four formal grievances against the Heart FM manager, relating to “sexual harassment, discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual orientation”, among others, CCMA documents seen by the Cape Times stated.
She then had to sign a non-disclosure as part of a labour settlement agreement.
In support of the victim, Dolley Major said: “We will sleep here until someone from Clicks will come and see us to accept our memorandum. The purpose of this memorandum is to hold Clicks accountable for their lack of response and action with regards to Heart FM keeping in their employ a manager who was accused of both bullying and sexual harassment. We criticise Clicks’ failure to act. They do, however, now have this opportunity to rectify their wrongs.”
Heart FM said the matter was taken seriously.
“When the internal sexual harassment grievance was raised we responded promptly as we view such allegations as extremely serious. Our internal and independent external investigations could not be concluded for lack of supporting evidence. Claims subsequently reported suggesting that the former employee was made to sign a non-disclosure agreement relating to her sexual harassment claim are disingenuous.
“The parties elected to conclude a settlement agreement under the auspices of a commissioner of the CCMA to avoid a disciplinary enquiry against her from proceeding. It’s a standard term of settlement agreements to include a confidentiality clause in these agreements.”
See the full story in Tuesday’s Cape Times.
Cape Times