New international standards needed to protect women from violence and harassment at work, unionist says

Read this text in Spanish.

Violence and harassment in the workplace are one of the major problems of our time. The Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (Confederación Sindical de las Américas, or TUCA-CSA) is working to establish a framework of international regulation through the International Labour Organization (ILO) to address this situation.

Eulogia Familia, president of the confederation’s Working Women’s Committee (Comité Continental de Mujeres Trabajadoras, or CMTA-CSA), explains how violence and harassment affects the Latin American workplace and the proposed solutions to eradicate it.

What is the role of the Working Women's Committee at TUCA-CSA, and what global developments in the world of work was it established in response to?

The Working Women's Committee (CMTA-CSA) is the body committed to promoting gender mainstreaming to achieve equality for workers of both genders at all levels of work, society, and politics.

Right now, the mode of production on a global scale is based on a neoliberal political and economic model directly linked to the patriarchy: economies driven by the globalization of markets; decentralized production processes; financial intermediation; and growth in service sectors. This is inevitably also transforming the labour market.

Such a model has adverse effects for the working class and especially for women, who find themselves in working conditions that are discriminatory, precarious, and outsourced. Wage levels demonstrate the gaping inequality; there is a deficit in women’s social security and a neglect of their productive and reproductive rights. We are also seeing confirmed incidences of violence and of sexual and general harassment, and these are compounded by low unionization and limited opportunities to access collective bargaining. This is why the CMTA-CSA is fighting for political and economic change that will be more equitable for everyone.

The International Labour Organization has started a standard-setting procedure on ending violence and harassment against women and men at work. What does this process entail and on what grounds was it launched?

Violence and harassment are violations of human rights. They threaten people’s dignity, security, health, and well-being. What is more, they negatively interfere with a company’s productivity and reputation, and are incompatible with decent work.

Existing labour standards are insufficient to tackle violence and harassment in the workplace. The Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations include the milestone of full productive employment with decent work and equality between genders. To achieve this by the target date of 2030 we must eliminate violence and harassment in the workplace by creating standards that help protect workers. Such an instrument, which the ILO Governing Body has indicated should be adopted in 2019, is expected to be a convention accompanied by a recommendation that will contain guidelines for establishing public policies to prevent, address, punish, and eradicate workplace violence and harassment with the participation of unions and employers.

What form of violence and harassment do workers in Latin America face? Are there mechanisms to report and sanction the perpetrators?

The most recurrent forms of violence and harassment in the workplace in the Americas are dismissal and harassment for organizing, preventing someone from going to the doctor or caring for a family member, or creating difficulty for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. To this we can add long work days without overtime pay, as well as cuts and limits to rest breaks and paid leave. There are also wage gaps between men and women workers or between migrants and locals, as well as physical aggressions such as confinement, unwanted advances, intimidation, and sexual abuse, sometimes resulting in unwanted pregnancies. In addition, workers are subject to bullying for various reasons including on grounds of their sexual orientation, race, or even age.

Some groups of workers face more violence than others, such as domestic workers, and also in sectors such as tourism and hospitality, as well as among workers in free economic zones and in rural areas. Women and young people are the main victims. In our region, violence is increasing because the institutional mechanisms for reporting and punishment are very weak and in some cases are managed by the same people who might be accused in the incident. In some countries, such as Uruguay and the United States, the institutional and judicial systems have adopted public policies to combat violence.

TUCA-CSA has set up a campaign for a convention as the best solution to this problem. Why in your view is this the best way to address workers’ challenges?

The CMTA-CSA indeed supports the implementation of a convention and a recommendation. Such agreements are an international and legally binding standard that, when adopted and ratified, establishes basic principles that countries must implement. Each ratifying State in this scenario would agree to regular monitoring of its compliance by the ILO and to render periodic accounts of its implementation progress. This puts pressure on governments and employers to comply, especially in countries with weak institutions, centralized democracies, and little respect for human rights.

A recommendation acts as a non-binding directive and can complement a convention. It provides guidelines to direct state policy, legislation, and practice and gives more detailed instructions about its application.

How is the campaign set up and organized? Who do you need to convince and what are the obstacles?

The campaign is based on guidelines from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), a global organization with an advocacy plan designed in collaboration with its regional affiliates, women’s committees, and gender programmes. The campaign is focused on empowering men and women workers, civil society, employers, and governments. It is built on the interaction of trade unions with feminist organizations. In some countries, such as the Dominican Republic, this work is being carried out with universities and with non-governmental organizations that safeguard human rights.

The campaign’s development depends on employers and governments, which require special effort because of the current circumstances of a resurgence and imposition of conservatism, misogynist and xenophobic political positions, and the rejection of homosexuality.

When the 108th session of the International Labor Conference of the ILO concludes in 2019, we hope that the convention will have been adopted along with the recommendation and that governments will be willing to ratify the supplementary convention. Combining favourable opinions and the actions to promote them, is a contribution to this process. This is the moment when lobbying governments and employers to garner support is absolutely necessary. The union movement has already clearly decided there is a need for the instrument.

Violence and harassment at work are certainly not new phenomena. What has led to raising in the agenda of trade unions and of global governance?

Violence and harassment are an increasing problem with globalization because worker exploitation is violent, but there are also other manifestations of violence that influence the psychosocial sphere. Existing standards are insufficient to deal with the problem. A new instrument is required, one that takes into account the dynamic between society and the workplace, and that includes specific actions and reporting measures to address violence at work.

What role can workers and trade unions world-wide plan in the process of ensuring international standards to end violence and harassment at work and how can this be of support to strengthen worker union’s base?

Union participation is essential to eradicating violence and harassment. The unions must reform themselves, organize groups of workers, fortify their structures, and bring the labour rights of all workers, men and women, to the collective bargaining table. They should do this from a human rights perspective that guarantees workers’ dignity.

Union organizations must monitor the violence and harassment that workers face. It is essential for labour unions to be permanently connected with the global society, establishing agreements that facilitate egalitarian measures against the exploitation, violence, and harassment of workers in the various countries that are key locations for the investment of global capital.

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For more information on the work by FES with the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas visit the official project page of the FES regional trade union project in Latin America FES Sindical (link in Spanish).