Woman, training and work

Gender! A Partnership of Equals
Geneve: International Labour Office, 2000. 115 p.

 

Violence at work
A costly burden

Violence at work is not only dangerous for the affected worker, it also has an impact on the dignity and the quality of life of the persons at risk. Moreover, it affects productivity because it has negative and distracting effects on the working environment. In a word, violence in the workplace is a costly burden for the worker, the enterprise, and the community.

What is it?

Violence at work covers a wide variety of behaviour, ranging from physical to psychological abuse. Traditionally, attention has focused on physical violence, but the impact and harm caused by psychological violence is increasingly being recognized.Attention is also growing with respect to violence perpetrated by repeated unacceptable behaviour, such as sexual harassment, bullying or "mobbing".

The dimension of violence is dramatic. In specific sectors particularly, it is growing. Awareness is increasing; however, much of violence is still undisclosed.

Who is vulnerable?

Vulnerability to violence varies with the type of job. Workers facing the highest risk of violence are those dealing with money, with the public, those who make decisions affecting clients' or patients' lives, those working in care-giving institutions, in maintenance, working at night or working alone. Women are concentrated in many of these sectors and are the most vulnerable. 

Some categories of women workers are doubly vulnerable to violence:

• Migrants and workers of different ethnic origin from their fellow workers
• Women workers in export processing zones

Who perpetrates it?

Violence originates from family members, fellow workers, and customers. Violence is a means of control, to which women are more vulnerable because of their age and employment status.

It becomes even more oppressive when it is associated with hierarchical power at the workplace.

What causes it?

Poverty, unemployment, economic crises, income insecurity, collapse of the state, competition for economic and property resources, unequal distribution of wealth, are all roots from which violence against women grows.

Migration and human trafficking are related to perceived economic disparities. They exist because there is a market, driven by consumer demand, and because in some parts of the world the feminization of poverty, lack of access to resources and the growing rates of unemployment and economic insecurity have expanded the pool of recruits for both trafficking and migration. 

Some labour and migration policies indirectly increase the vulnerability of women to violence:

• Exemptions from existing labour standards have been granted to export processing zones or maquiladoras, in order to attract foreign investment 

• Labour exporting countries have often tended to undercut prevailing market conditions, offering female labour on more favourable terms, detrimental to the well-being of the migrant women. In labour-importing countries, gender selectivity and sensitivity of immigration laws have often pushed migrant women into precarious, illegal and unprotected employment.

Cultural norms and the resultingperception in different contexts and cultures of what constitutes violence is extremely diverse. Discrimination against women, and gender stereotypes in many walks of life - including the workplace - tend to perpetuate violence against women. Violence at work as a human rights issue cannot be dismissed on cultural grounds.

What can be done about it?

It is important to approach the problem of violence comprehensively. The ILO approaches violence against women in the world of work as a three-pronged issue: a human rights issue, a labour issue, and a health and safety issue. Here are some recommendations which can reduce the problem:

• At the enterprise level: Preventing violence at work is management's responsibility. Violence is detrimental to the efficient functioning of the workplace. Any strategy to combat violence in the workplace should seek to address the organizational, managerial and interpersonal roots of the violence, and to increase the security of workers and provide rehabilitation and psychological counseling, when necessary, to help victims cope with the aftermath of violence.

• At the national level: National legislation should be revised if necessary to consider violence as an offense, to penalize its perpetrators and to strengthen the protection of its victims.Violence should be approached in such a manner that all aspects are considered - legal, medical, psychological and social assistance - at all stages - prevention, treatment of victims, treatment of perpetrators, reintegration.

• At the international level: The Beijing Platform for Action has brought more visibility to the problem of violence against women, but international legal instruments to combat violence and exploitation are still rare - and those which exist have been poorly ratified. More must be done in this area. Sensitization campaigns and lobbying are important to raise consciousness and, in some instances, have led to the negotiation of codes of conduct regarding working conditions. Concerning migration and the trafficking of women and children, cooperation should be sought at the regional or sub-regional level. Protection of migrant women should be addressed at two levels: by bilateral agreements, or internationally by agreed minimum standards of treatment. 

What has the ILO done about it?

The ILO has been concerned about the problem for many years. The protection of women (and children, both male and female) has been addressed in several ILO Conventions and Recommendations. Furthermore, the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, reiterated the necessary elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour, the effective abolition of child labour and the elimination of discrimination with respect to employment and occupation. In 1999, the International Labour Conference also discussed trafficking in the context of the newest ILO Convention on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour.
 

ILO Conventions and Recommendations Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) Migration for Employment (Revised) Convention, 1949 (No. 97) Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143) Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) (The first international instrument in which sexual harassment was addressed directly.) Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), and Recommendation, 1999 (No. 190)

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