Question: Who can we contact regarding sexual harassment? Our company has been notified, but does nothing. Our supervisors are giving our women a bad time. We need help.
Answer: You can file a complaint with the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission.
Call 586-8636 to get a pre-complaint questionnaire to fill out or you can download one from the commission’s website, hawaii.gov/labor/ hcrc/hcrc-links/forms.shtml.
Information provided will be kept confidential during an investigation, an official with the commission said.
You also have the option of going to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, if your company has 15 or more employees. See www.eeoc.gov/ laws/types/sexual_harassment.cfm.
UH WOMEN’S RESTROOMS
In September, the University of Hawaii told us it was addressing numerous problems with the women’s restrooms at the Stan Sheriff Center, most of them attributed to an aging plumbing system (see /is.gd/oUsSHz).
We didn’t mention additional complaints about the lack of toilet seat covers and flimsiness of the toilet paper offered, but did pass them on to UH.
In a letter to “Kupuna and Loyal Supporters of UH Sports” in response to a petition from sports fans, which also was sent to the Star-Advertiser, Kathy Cutshaw, UH vice chancellor for administration, finance and operations, said improvements are coming.
“A higher quality 1-ply (toilet paper) made in the USA” has been ordered and will be available by year’s end, replacing the current 1-ply product manufactured overseas, she said.
“The decision to go with the higher quality 1-ply over the 2-ply was made due to the significant difference in cost.”
Meanwhile, there still won’t be toilet seat covers available, but Cutshaw said the Athletics Department is “exploring the feasibility” of installing toilet seat dispensers and covers in all women’s restrooms at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The “majority of improvements have been completed” in repairing the restrooms, she said, and
the Athletics Department “will monitor and address problems in a timely manner.”
COPTER WORK ENDS AND BEGINS
Hawaiian Electric Co. is continuing to replace aging equipment and structures across Oahu, which means noisy helicopter flights over certain neighborhoods also will continue.
There will be respite soon for those in the Palolo-St. Louis Heights-Manoa area, as work that began in August is scheduled to be completed Oct. 12. But that all depends on weather and “unforeseeable circumstances,” said HECO spokesman Peter Rosegg.
Elsewhere, HECO began work Wednesday near the Kahe Power Plant on the 138 kilovolt Kahe-to-Halawa power line, as well as preliminary work to replace poles near Sea Life Park, both requiring the use of helicopters.
Work to replace the poles near Sea Life Park will begin Oct. 20 and end Oct. 27 and take place as early as 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., when the park opens.
Before then, Rosegg said, there will be helicopter flights from Kamehame Ridge in the mornings to prepare for the job.
The Kahe-to-Halawa work is part of continuing work to replace structures in unpopulated areas from Kahe Valley to Waipio and Mililani, he said. The target completion date for that area is the end of this month.
MAHALO
To the paddlers and surfers who assisted me after my one-man canoe was run over by a sailing canoe going about 15 knots. They didn’t even bother to stop to see if I was all right.
Mahalos to a six-man canoe team that helped me repair my iako (spar on a canoe) and the surfers who helped me get back to shore.
— Grateful Paddler
Write to "Kokua Line" at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
