Summary:
-
Women were more likely than men to talk about their experiences (60.7 percent compared to 50.1 percent).17.9% of working men and women worldwide said they had experienced emotional abuse or harassment at some point in their careers, and 8.5% said they had experienced physical abuse or harassment.
-
More than three out of five victims said they had been hurt or harassed more than once, and most said the most recent time it happened was within the last five years.
-
206) from the International Labor Organization (ILO) are the first global labor rules to set up a framework for preventing, solving, and getting rid of violence and harassment in the workplace, including violence and harassment based on gender.
-
It explicitly recognizes, for the first time in international law, everyone’s right to a world of work free from violence and harassment.
- The ILO-LRF-Gallup study was based on interviews with nearly 75,000 employed people aged 15 or older that were done in 2021 as part of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll in 121 countries and territories.
Experiences of Violence and Harassment at Work: A Global First Survey looks at the size of the problem and the things that might stop people from talking about it, like shame, guilt, a lack of trust in institutions, or the idea that bad behavior is “normal.”
Lack of transparency
It might be challenging to quantify workplace violence and harassment. According to the survey, only 50% of victims globally shared their stories with someone else, and sometimes only after they had been the victims of numerous attacks.
The most often cited justifications for not disclosing were that it was thought to be a “waste of time” and that those who had been assaulted were afraid for their reputations. Women were more likely than men to talk about their experiences (60.7 percent compared to 50.1 percent).
17.9% of working men and women worldwide said they had experienced emotional abuse or harassment at some point in their careers, and 8.5% said they had experienced physical abuse or harassment. More men than women claim to have gone through this.
According to the UN labor agency, 6.3% of those who answered said they had been sexually abused or harassed. “Women are especially at risk,” the agency said.
Highest risk
According to the research, young people, migrant workers, and salaried women and men are most likely to be hurt by violence.
Young women are more likely than young men to have experienced sexual violence or harassment, and migrant women are more likely than non-migrant women to report such incidents.
More than three out of five victims said they had been hurt or harassed more than once, and most said the most recent time it happened was within the last five years.
Manuela Tomei, the ILO’s Assistant Director-General for Governance, Rights, and Dialogue, said, “It hurts to know that people face violence and harassment not just once, but more than once in their working lives.”
A challenging challenge lies ahead.
“Psychological harassment and violence are the most common worldwide, and women are particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment and violence.” The report tells us about the massive amount of work that needs to be done to stop violence and harassment at work. I think it would hasten the process of ratifying and putting ILO Convention 190 into effect.
The 2019 Violence and Harassment Convention (or 190) and Recommendation (No. 206) from the International Labor Organization (ILO) are the first global labor rules to set up a framework for preventing, solving, and getting rid of violence and harassment in the workplace, including violence and harassment based on gender.
The Convention establishes the obligations of signatories towards this goal. It explicitly recognizes, for the first time in international law, everyone’s right to a world of work free from violence and harassment.
Removing the cloak
Finding reliable information on this highly delicate topic is difficult yet crucial. According to Gallup Partner Andrew Rzepa, “This report raises the lid on this persistent issue that affects more than one in five workers globally for the first time.” He said, “Companies and organizations have ignored or refused to deal with violence and harassment in the workplace for far too long.” We can all use this dataset as a starting point to track how this significant safety problem is getting fixed.
Sarah Cumbers, Director of Evidence and Insight at the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, says that to solve “global safety challenges as hard and pervasive as violence and harassment at work,” it is essential to have good data to understand the scope of the problem and figure out who is most at risk. This is especially true in places where there may have been little reliable data in the past.
We are thrilled to have been able to work with Gallup and the ILO to make this historic contribution to filling in these data gaps as part of our World Risk Poll and setting a standard for countries to improve, which was made possible by the important adoption of Convention 190.
Report Suggestions
The report makes several recommendations, some of which are as follows:
The regular collection of reliable data on violence and harassment in the workplace at the national, regional, and international levels so that laws, methods, policies, and programs for preventing and fixing these problems can be improved
Enhancing and modernizing systems for successfully managing and preventing harassment and violence, such as labour inspection systems and workplace safety and health rules and programs
raising awareness of workplace violence and harassment in all forms to change attitudes, behaviours, and perceptions that can lead to it, especially those based on prejudice.
Build people’s confidence in the legal system and guarantee that victims are supported by strengthening the capacity of institutions at all levels to provide effective prevention, correction, and support.
The ILO-LRF-Gallup study was based on interviews with nearly 75,000 employed people aged 15 or older that were done in 2021 as part of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll in 121 countries and territories.
Analysis by: Advocacy Unified Network
