Thirty-five Timorese labour inspectors and mediators, of whom ten were women, participated at the two-day training on the prevention and handling violence and harassment at work from 25-26 September in Dili, jointly organized by the Secretary of State for Vocational Training and Employment (SEFOPE) in collaboration with the ILO in Indonesia and Timor-Leste. The training aimed to improve the participants’ knowledge on international labour standards on issues related to occupational safety and health (OSH) as well as the prevention of harassment and violence at work. The training also aimed to improve their ability to be effectively exercise their function as labour inspection and mediators.

In addition to the ILO facilitators, two labour inspectors from Indonesia, Muhammad Fertiaz, OSH Labour inspectors and Andrey Indra, Women’s Rights Norms Inspector, were invited to share their experiences. Labour inspector Muhammad shared existing regulations related to OSH, a guide for employers and inspectors in understanding respectful workplace, a platform for reporting of cases and inspection procedures in Indonesia, while Inspector Indra shared the challenges faced in handling the violence and harassment cases.

“Most of the violence and harassment cases happened at the workplaces with poor working condition and environment. Proper lighting at work, safety procedures at work, transparent recruitment process are some examples of the preventive actions that we encourage workers and employers to do. However, the hardest challenge is the reluctance of victims to report the case as they are afraid of getting job termination,” explained Indra.

Frederico de Matos, Director General of Labour Inspection of SEFOFE, in his opening and closing remarks explained about the recently deliberated Law No. 11/2023 on Safety, Health and Hygiene at Work. The Law requires labour inspectors in Timor-Leste to pay attention not only to the physical safety and health, but also to the psychological and mental of the workers. Thus, to complement the OSH Law, SEFOPE has drafted the Law on violence and harassment at work and has considered the ratification of ILO Convention No.190 on Violence and Harassment, with support from the ILO.

“We thank the ILO for collaborating with us in the organization of this training and we are also happy to have an opportunity to learn from Indonesian inspectors. The knowledge and experience sharing session is useful and beneficial for our inspectors as we are still learning and we want to ensure that workplace can comply effectively,” said Frederico.

In addition, the sharing session covered collective bargaining issue. Collective bargaining could be a useful tool for labour inspectors and mediators to prevent violence and harassment at work and could be used to regulate internal procedure within the workplace to handle arising cases.

The training concluded with the development of action planning. The participants identified key actions to strengthen the functions of labour inspectors and mediators: The ratification of ILO Convention No. 190, the adoption of national law on prevention of violence and harassment at work, the socialization and training to all stakeholders and effective inspection and counselling.