The first global survey of the experience of violence and harassment in the workplace aims to provide a better understanding and awareness of an issue rooted in complex economic, social and cultural factors. complicated, said ILO In a press release published on Monday.
Experiences of Violence and Harassment in the Workplace: A First Global Survey assess the extent of the problem and consider factors that may prevent people from talking about what they’ve been through, including shame, guilt, or lack of trust in institutions, or because of inappropriate behavior Such acceptance is considered “normal”.
Lack of disclosure
Violence and harassment in the workplace is difficult to measure. The report found that only half of victims worldwide disclose their experiences to others, and often only after they have experienced repeated incidents.
The most common reasons given for non-disclosure were that it was seen as a “waste of time”, causing abusers to fear for their reputation. Women are more likely to share their experiences than men (60.7% vs 50.1%).
Globally, 17.9% of employed men and women reported experiencing violence and psychological harassment at some point in their working lives and 8.5% had experienced sexual assault. violence and physical harassment. More men than women report experiencing this.
Of those who responded, 6.3 percent reported facing sexual violence and harassment, “with women particularly vulnerable,” the United Nations labor agency said.
have the highest risk
According to the data, young people, migrant workers, paid women and men are the most vulnerable to violence.
young women have Young men are twice as likely to face sexual violence and harassment, while migrant women are nearly twice as likely to report sexual violence and harassment as non-migrant women.
More than three out of five victims said they had experienced violence and harassment many timesand for the most part, the most recent incident happened within the last five years.
Manuela Tomei, ILO Assistant Director-General for Governance, Rights and Dialogue said: “It is heartbreaking to know that people face violence and harassment not once but many times in their lives. their work.
Tough task ahead
“Violence and psychological harassment are most common in all countries, and women in particular face violence and sexual harassment. The report tells us about the importance of the task ahead to end violence and harassment in the world of work. I hope it will accelerate practical action and move towards ratification and implementation of ILO Convention 190.”
ILO Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (or 190) and Recommendation (No. 206) are the first international labor standards to provide a common framework to prevent, remediate and eliminate violence and harassment in the world of work, including gender-based violence and harassment.
The Convention includes a specific recognition, for the first time in international law, of everyone’s right to a world of work free from violence and harassment, and spells out the obligations of the parties. signed for this purpose.
lift the veil
“Gathering robust data on this highly sensitive issue is challenging but necessary. For the first time, this report lifts the curtain on this pervasive problem that plagues more than a fifth of workers globally,” said Andrew Rzepa, Partner at Gallup. He added: “For a long time, companies and organizations were either unaware or unwilling to address violence and harassment in the workplace. “This dataset provides a basis we can all use to track much-needed progress on this critical safety issue.”
Sarah Cumbers, Director of Evidence and Insights at Lloyd’s Registrar, said to address “difficult and deeply rooted global safety challenges such as violence and harassment in the home country” work, it’s important to have good data to understand the extent of the problem and to identify those most at risk, especially in places where previously little reliable data were available.
“We are delighted to be able to work with Gallup and the ILO to make this landmark contribution to filling these data gaps as part of our World Risk Survey and to provide a standard for states to improve, spurred by ratification of the 190 Convention.”
Proposal report
Some of the recommendations made in the report include:
TherePowerful data collection on violence and harassment in the workplace, at national, regional and global levels, to provide information on prevention and remediation laws, mechanisms, policies and programs.
Mechanism of expansion and update to effectively prevent and manage violence and harassment, including through labor inspection systems and occupational health and safety policies and programs.
Raise awareness about violence and harassment in the workplaceincluding its various manifestations, aimed at changing perceptions, stigmas, attitudes and behaviors that can lead to violence and harassment, especially those based on discrimination.
Capacity building of institutions at all levels to prevent, remedy and provide effective support, create people’s trust in justice and ensure victims are supported.
The ILO-LRF-Gallup study is based on interviews conducted in 2021 with nearly 75,000 employed individuals aged 15 years and over, in 121 countries and territories, as part of the Poll. Lloyd’s Register Fund’s world risk.
