The ILO’s Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190) is gaining attention in the Caribbean. Some countries have ratified it, which includes from the Caribbean: The Bahamas (2022) and Barbados (2022). This is a welcome trend, but it, unfortunately, means that there are issues to be addressed through instruments such as this Convention. It is generally known that gender-based violence, if not specifically violence and harassment in the world of work, is rampant in the Caribbean.

As far as legislative measures are concerned, Caribbean countries have thus far addressed gender-based violence mainly through laws on domestic violence and sexual offences, and in certain cases on criminal acts or on discrimination. These laws are indeed relevant to violence and harassment in the world of work (VHWW), but they usually apply generally to other types of places (e.g., domestic violence) or to any places (e.g., criminal acts). They, therefore, lack provisions specific to the world of work, such as the roles of employers or workers, and their respective organizations. To address this gap, it is of course possible and appropriate to adopt a law which specifically deals with VHWW.  But other approaches – or entry points (see page 25 of the report entitled Violence and harassment in the world of work: A guide on Convention No. 190 and Recommendation No. 206) – are possible. One of such entry points is laws and regulations on occupational safety and health (OSH).

The OSH law entry point is based on legal provisions in OSH laws and regulations concerning the protection of workers’ safety and health, and seeks to include the risk of violence and harassment in the scope of protection. Various countries include VHWW as a safety and health issue in various types of instruments. For example, in Grenada, a National Policy on OSH states that psychosocial factors must be reported as a health and safety issues. In Canada, the 2020 Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations includes harassment and violence in the workplace as one of the risk factors to be identified. There are other examples where the focus is on sexual harassment. Other examples are found in this ILO report (see page 61).

Again, it is possible to deal with VHWW under laws and regulations on other matters as well. While laws and regulations specifically on VHWW are not possible or are likely to take time to be developed and implemented, various entry point laws which may already exist in the country may be considered. The OSH legislation is one such entry point.