Almost 23% of employees (more than one in five) worldwide have experienced violence or harassment at work, whether physical, psychological or sexual, indicates an unprecedented study released Tuesday by the International Labor Organization. .
The report “Experiences of violence and harassment at work: a first global survey”, the first of its kind, is the result of joint work between the ILO, the Lloyd’s Register Foundation (LRF) and Gallup.
Globally, 17.9% of workers said they had suffered violence and psychological harassment during their professional lives, while 8.5% indicated they had been victims of violence or physical harassment (more men) and 6, 3% reported having faced violence and sexual harassment. (mainly women).
With the “objective of improving understanding and awareness of a problem rooted in complex economic, social and cultural factors”, in 2021 nearly 75,000 employed people, over 15 years of age, were interviewed in 121 countries and territories.
In addition to giving an idea of the magnitude of the problem and its different forms, the report also looks at “the factors that prevent people from talking about their experiences, namely shame, guilt or lack of trust in institutions, or why such unacceptable are considered normal,’ “says the study statement.
“Globally, only half of victims have spoken to another person about their experiences, and often only after having experienced more than one form of violence and harassment,” it adds.
Considering it “a waste of time” and “the fear of tarnishing his reputation” were the most common responses to justify silence.
Even so, women are more likely to share experiences than men (60.7% and 50.1% respectively).
The study reveals that young workers, migrants, as well as men and women who work for others are the most affected groups.
“Young women are twice as likely as young men to be victims of sexual harassment and violence, and migrant women are twice as likely as other women.”
More than three in five victims report experiencing workplace violence and harassment multiple times, and in the vast majority of cases, the last incident occurred in the past five years.
“It is painful to know that people are victims of violence and harassment at work not just once, but multiple times, during their working lives,” says Manuela Tomei, ILO Deputy Director General for Governance, Rights and Dialogue, quoted in a statement.
Regularly collect information on violence and harassment at work, expand and update mechanisms to prevent and manage the problem (i.e. through inspection systems and occupational health and safety tools and programmes), raise awareness and build capacity of institutions “at all levels to effectively prevent, correct and support people” are some of the recommendations presented in the report.
“For too long, companies and institutions have been unaware of the problem or reluctant to address violence and harassment in the workplace. These statistics provide a baseline that we can use to make the necessary progress on this issue. issue, which is a security problem”. says Andrew Rzepa of Gallup.
Source: TSF
