With the ratification of the Philippines on February 20, the Convention against violence and harassment at work 2019 reached 38 members worldwide, thus strengthening the global interest in the prevention of abusive attitudes, harassment or leading to acts of verbal and physical violence against workers, men and women.
The International Labor Organization (ILO), which drafted this convention and promotes it year after year with studies and research in its latest report on the subject, took stock of the role that the company's occupational safety system can play in the prevention of these acts of intimidation and violence and on its effectiveness, not without possibility of improvement.
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Violence and harassment at work: data around the world
According to ILO data from a 2022 survey collected not without a lot of difficulty and reluctance of those questioned, in the world more than one in five people have suffered violence and harassment at work: 17.9% of people respondents complained of psychological intimidation and 8.5% (more men than women) of a physical nature. 6.3% reported experiencing sexual violence and harassment, with women particularly at risk.
According to ISTAT 2022 data, in Italy there are 1 million 404 thousand women who have suffered physical harassment or sexual blackmail in the workplace during their professional life, or 8.9% of working women but, as we As we have seen, many of them lack data to fully understand. the phenomenon.
What tools do we have to assert our right to a healthy and safe working environment?
How can we protect ourselves from the risks of violence and aggression in the world?
At the end of 2023, in the report: “Preventing and combating violence and harassment in the world of work through occupational safety and health measures”, the ILO tried to understand the different results obtainedi by States in the protection of workers against violence and harassment at work in order to identify the best solutions. It appears that in Europe and Central Asia, provisions against violence and harassment are mainly integrated into laws governing security. In Asia, the Pacific and the Arab States, there are targeted laws, while Spain and Tunisia have general security laws that could cover acts of intimidation, but only Spain explicitly recognizes them and indicates how to manage them, thus providing a good example to follow.
In Italy, the Consolidated Safety Law requires the employer to assess all risks, implicitly including those linked to violence or threats, without however explicitly mentioning them: in terms of regulation, as we have seen , adequate criminal protection is still lacking.
So, what tools are available to truly protect yourself at work?
Healthy and safe environment: with what tools?
Although empirical evidence on the factors that lead to violence and threats is increasingly emerging in the business context, the ILO in its report calls for further research understand how the workplace safety system can protect a workplace capable of combating such behavior. The mobilization of all stakeholders in the world of work, although effective in its information and awareness activities, requires greater sharing of good practices and the involvement of unions, businesses and institutions.
Essential, underlines OIL collect more data and insist on sharing of these experiences in business from a perspective of protection and prevention: if today in Italy, according to ISTAT, 80.9% of a woman does not talk about what she has suffered, we realize that one of the first actions to undertake is precisely create these conditions of trust and protection at work which often exists but does not emerge in the right way.
