Received from: CSP
Merged into composite 10
Congress welcomes the convention on combatting workplace sexual harassment, passed at the ILO annual conference in June. It is a fitting advance in the ILO’s 100th year.
It should be a basic right to work free from harassment and abuse. Yet more than one in three countries do not have any specific laws against workplace sexual harassment, according to the World Discrimination at Work report.
Unwanted sexual behaviours at work, from physical assault to inappropriate jokes, affect over half of women in the UK, according to TUC research, which also found 20 per cent of women reporting that the person harassing them was their manager or someone in a position of authority. Among LGBT workers, around seven out of ten experienced sexual harassment at work and almost one in eight LGBT women reported being seriously sexually assaulted or raped at work, a separate TUC survey found.
In the UK, sexual harassment is happening every day in our workplaces but our laws rely on individuals reporting harassment to get action taken. This is not working. Four out of five women and two-thirds of LGBT workers that had been sexually harassed did not feel able to tell their employer. A quarter of LGBT workers said they felt unable to report because they were afraid of being ‘outed’ at work.
Congress welcomes the #ThisIsNotWorking campaign for a new, easily enforceable legal duty to prevent workplace sexual harassment in the UK before it happens and urges all affiliates to mobilise in support of it.
Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
Amendment
- Add new final paragraph:
“Congress further urges the General Council to mobilise action by affiliates to support annually the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, held between 25 November and 10 December.”
NASUWT
Amendment
- Insert new paragraph 5:
‘In addition, Congress condemns the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to silence victims and protect perpetrators and calls for the outlawing of the use of NDAs in cases of sexual harassment at work.”
University and College Union