By Mae Singuay

The Bacolod City Sangguniang Panlungsod committee on women, gender and family is calling employers in the city to conduct gender-sensitivity training after a social media post on the alleged body shaming incident went viral recently.

Councilor Celia Flor said it is better that employers conduct training for their employees, particularly for those who are dealing with other people within workplaces.

“Kis-a daw joke lang [ang body shaming] which can hurt people, but we should always be aware of our manners,” Flor said.

She said body shaming is a crime which violates the anti-discrimination law.

“Let us avoid body shaming because it can hurt any individual,” she stressed.

A second-year female college student, taking up a bachelor’s degree in psychology, was the recent victim of a body shaming incident in Bacolod City.

In a Facebook post on September 20, the 19-year-old student claimed that she was body shamed “publicly by a ‘konduktor’ sang modern nga jeep sang HOMESITE RSJ Lines, Inc.”

The social media post went viral with over 20,000 shares as of this writing.

The modernized jeep conductor told her to pay a double fare of P22, instead of P11, because her body size was “equivalent to two persons.”

She said it was a traumatic experience for her being body shamed in the presence of several passengers.

She got off the bus and cried, and decided not to ride on the said bus anymore.

The student said in the post that conductors and drivers must refrain from bullying or body shaming passengers.

Meanwhile, modernized bus operator RSJ Lines Inc. released a statement over the incident.

“Following the recent incident involving one of our employees and a passenger, RSJ Lines Inc. would like to extend our sincerest apologies for the unfortunate situation that has affected the aggrieved individual.”

The operator said they will take these matters seriously and will denounce and disapprove of such behavior.

“We uphold ourselves to exacting customer service standards, and the actions of the employee in question are in no way indicative of our principles or our dedication to delivering exceptional service,” the operator further said.

“We have reached out to the aggrieved individual privately and have taken measures to address this situation comprehensively, including a thorough investigation and the implementation of appropriate disciplinary actions against our employee,” it added./MS, WDJ