Today’s launch of the 3rd national strategy on DSGBV- Zero Tolerance - marks a key milestone in the struggle to ensure women’s equality – something that will not be achieved until we end male violence against women.
Congress shares the aim of a Zero Tolerance approach and looks forward to continuing our work towards achieving that in our workplaces and wider society.
The focus on workplace measures to crackdown on violence against women is hugely important. The Congress 2019 survey on sexual harassment revealed that of those experiencing harassment in the workplace, four out of five workers do not report the incident to their employer while only one in four of the minority who did report such incidents felt it was taken seriously and dealt with satisfactorily.
In recognition of the impact that domestic violence has on working lives, Trade unions have come up with solutions to support and protect victims and survivors of domestic violence through negotiating workplace policies in this area. Combined with the promised introduction of paid domestic violence leave these can play an important role in ensuring the workplace is a more supportive environment for those experiencing domestic violence.
Congress was a participant in the negotiation in 2019 of ILO Convention 190 on violence and harassment in the world of work and its accompanying Recommendation 206 which gives further, more detailed guidance on how the Convention should be implemented at national level.
There is a welcome reference to these important instruments in the implementation plan for the strategy and Congress believes that ratification of the Convention will be an important step in refocusing all of our efforts to ensure our workplaces have a zero-tolerance approach to violence and harassment and we urge the Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment to ensure this happens before the end of 2022.
Congress will continue to play its role both nationally and internationally to support the achievement of the goal of Zero Tolerance of Domestic, Gender, and Sexual based violence.
