Legislators pledge to create safer, harassment-free workplaces in the Philippines

Quezon City, Philippines (ILO News) - Legislators and members of the House of Representatives affirm their commitment to protect workers and create a safe and inclusive work environment.

Congress led by House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez expressed full support for the effective implementation of the Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190) or ILO C.190. He emphasized the importance of ratifying C.190 as a step towards addressing critical issues of workplace violence and harassment.

"ILO C.190 presents a unique opportunity to ensure that every worker is treated with dignity, respect and protection. The challenge now is to translate this international convention into effective and meaningful policies that will bring about lasting change in the lives of our people," said House Speaker Romualdez.

More concretely, he vowed that under his leadership, the House of Representatives will advance legislation that upholds such principles and he encouraged everyone to create a future where every worker feels secure, empowered and valued in their workplace.

Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Arlene Brosas, a key convenor of the Parliamentarians and Advocates for C.190 network and author of several gender equality laws like the Safe Spaces Act, highlighted the urgent need to harmonize all existing gender-related laws, support enabling national law implementing ILO C.190 and ensure its adoption on the ground by local government units (LGUs) and combat gender-based violence, harassment, inequality and discrimination in the world of work.

In addition, Former Representative Sarah Jane Elago, Gabriela Women’s Party’s chief policy consultant for young women’s affairs, said that effective strategies would have to be developed to ensure ILO C.190’s full implementation in the Philippines, which can be done by convening small group discussions of national and local legislative offices. She also called for more funding of laws on safe spaces, occupational safety and health, and labour inspection, while work is being done to craft an enabling national law on C.190.

Meanwhile, Ms Anne Colina and Ms Jillian Roque, co-convenors of Women Workers United (WWU), an alliance of women labour leaders and union organizers, shared stories and cases of violence and harassment that were experienced by women workers as part of a series of case documentations, consultations, and dialogues they conducted. WWU's presentation cited the pressing need and urgency to address the psychosocial, physical, mental, emotional, and economic impacts of gender-based violence and harassment on women workers.

Mr Khalid Hassan, Director of the ILO Country Office for the Philippines (ILO CO-Manila) commended the Philippines’ ratification of ILO C.190. He emphasized the role that C.190 could play in terms of updating the Philippines’ landmark gender equality legislation by highlighting the links between domestic violence and the world of work, the impact of gender-based economic violence and the importance of gender-responsive social dialogue.

To chart concrete steps and ways forward, the ILO CO-Manila C.190 coordination team provided an extensive and detailed presentation on how ILO C.190 can help address current gaps and strengthen the government’s commitment and efforts to end violence and harassment in the world of work by doing the following:

• expanding the scope, definition, and coverage of acts, behaviours, practices, incidences, and instances of violence and harassment in the world of work;
• adopting workplace policies that emphasize zero tolerance towards violence and harassment at work;
• enhancing reporting and monitoring mechanisms on cases of violence and harassment
• supporting victims and survivors of violence and harassment in the world of work to speak out;
• strengthening of grievance mechanisms, policies, and institutions against violence and harassment at work; and
• underscoring the impact of gender-based violence and harassment in the world of work on occupational safety and health, and mental health and well-being of workers, among others.

The ILO C.190 Information Session and Policy Forum on C.190 was specifically designed to promote awareness and capacity-building for the staff of various district and party-list congressional offices of the House of Representatives and also a number of local city councils, such as those from Quezon City and Caloocan City, among others.

The forum was jointly organized by the ILO Country Office for the Philippines (ILO CO-Manila), Parliamentarians and Advocates for C.190 Network, Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP), Federation of Free Workers (FFW), Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLink) and Women Workers United (WWU). The ILO-EU Trade for Decent Work Project, ILO-USDOL Rural Sectors Project and the Danish Trade Union Development Agency (DTDA)-assisted FFW Project on Workers’ Rights all contributed to the effort.