Perceptions and Experiences of Workplace Violence and Harassment

2003

The issues of violence and harassment have aroused considerable and growing interest across Europe in recent years. There remains, however, a great disparity between awareness and recognition of the problem within European countries. The real extent of the phenomenon remains unknown, but the Foundation's European surveys on working conditions suggest that a substantial part of the workforce in Member States is affected. Faced with the persistent lack of comparative qualitative data on these complex phenomena, the Foundation commissioned in 2002 a project into violence and harassment in the workplace. The present report identifies the different forms and patterns of violence and harassment in the workplace in the EU and describes the recent upsurge in activity and initiatives with respect to violence and harassment within the legal arena, with new legislation addressing these problems recently enacted or in the pipeline in a number of countries. It presents evidence of adverse effects on individuals, organisations and society, and assesses the potential financial costs. It also analyses the factors that may contribute to and cause physical and psychological violence, and reviews a variety of good practices with respect to preventing and managing violence and harassment at work. This report should provide policy-makers, economic and social actors and researchers with a useful source of information and will undoubtedly provide a stimulus for further initiatives in this previously neglected area.

This research was conducted to address the experience of workplace violence of Turkish workers from different sectors and to investigate the impact of the exposed violence on their psychological well-being. Data were collected anonymously with printed questionnaires from the volunteer participants and depended on self-reporting. The response rate was 79.0% (1708/2161). The prevalence of workplace violence was found to be 44.8%. The most common type was verbal violence together with mobbing (bullying). Victims of physical violence were mostly males, whereas females were found to be victims of verbal, psychological and sexual violence. Most cases did not result in legal action and the victims remained silent. Psychological well-being of exposed workers in terms of depression, anxiety and stress seemed to deteriorate. Workplace violence remains a silent epidemic in Turkey. Preventive measures against workplace violence and social support for violated workers do not exist.

Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, 2020

The issue of psychological violence in the workplace or any other place where the employee is obliged to be is currently becoming more acute and relevant, particularly with respect to numerous women reporting workplace harassment. The greatest difficulty for those suffering various forms of harassment is to prove the fact of psychological or physical violence, and the need to expose these private facts of life to the public eye. In both Russia and Kazakhstan, the society usually condemns victims of violence, and the legislation ignores them restricting itself to the existence of criminal law norms, which, however, are virtually not applied. The paper reveals not only the problems of legal regulation in the field of labor legislation, which does not protect employees against sexual harassment and other forms of violence at work. It shows practical solutions for Russia and Kazakhstan to establish transparent and effective standards for protection of employees, since these countries are bound by international conventions on discrimination and violence in the workplace.

European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 2015

Eurofound website: http://eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/eurwork/comparative-information/violence-and-harassment-in-european-workplaces-extent-impacts-and-policies Violence and harassment are attacks on personal dignity, the right to equal and non-discriminatory treatment and often a person’s health. Workers affected by it feel insecure about their work; they are more frequently absent and may even be unable to work, with consequent impacts on productivity and corporate and public costs. Some national-level surveys point to a long-standing increase in reported violence and harassment. Certain European countries, such as the Scandinavian countries, have more coordinated, established policies on preventing and tackling violence and harassment. Awareness of the topic at the national level, its inclusion in legislation and the degree of the social partners’ involvement in policies and interventions all contribute to the effectiveness of policies to address it.

2015

Women are concentrated in many of the high risk occupations, particularly as farmers, teachers, social workers, nurses and other health-care workers, as well as bank and shop workers. As women gain more opportunities for employment in occupations and positions, their exposure to violence is heightened. Internationally, workplace violence against female workers is recognized as a global serious concern. This article considers the analysis of the prevalence, sources, forms and female occupational groups at risk of Work Place Violence (WPV). Also, to study the impacts of workplace violence on the victim, the victim‟s family and the work. Moreover, this article discusses preventive and control measures and strategies to stop WPV against female workers.

Annual Research Journal, Ministry of Labour, 2021

The ILO Convention on Violence and Harassment in the World of Work and its complementary Recommendation No. 206 was adopted by the ILO's tripartite constituents in 2019 and entered into force in June 2021. The Convention addresses several gaps in existing international labour and human rights standards on violence and harassment. It is the principal instrument that provides a comprehensive regulatory framework to protect workers, particularly women, in all foreseeable circumstances. The Convention has serious implications for transforming work environments and promoting women's participation in the workplace in Sri Lanka, as violence and harassment disproportionately affect women. Despite commendable statistics on education, as well as social and health indicators, women continue to occupy only a minor percentage of the workforce. Empirical studies indicate violence and harassment, including sexual harassment, as a significant barrier to women's access to and vertical mobility in the workplace. The existing constitutional, policy and legislative frameworks are woefully inadequate to respond to the diverse and multiple manifestations of violence and harassment against women. The article examines the key features of the ILO Convention and Recommendation and its 'new standards'. Furthermore, it draws attention to the current limitations of government policy and legislation in Sri Lanka. Consequently, it presents an alternative hypothesis to transform work environments and promotes women's participation by eliminating violence and harassment in the world of work.

www.amfiteatrueconomic.ro

Workplace abuse is a widespread, worldwide social phenomenon and the topic is highly germane, given the established link between employment quality and mental and physical health and the changes developing in the labor market, including globalization processes, economic recession influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid technological innovation, and demographic variations that potentially cause fluctuations in the labor market. The primary objectives of this paper were to explore definitions and theoretical frameworks of workplace abuse and also to examine the international legal aspects of such abuse. We employed Tepper's Abusive Supervision Survey Questionnaire to detect manifestations of abusive behavior toward employees in two large organizations, one public and one private, and one smaller national organization in Israel, while expanding its scope beyond its current use in extant legislation and legal literature. Finally, we aimed to offer practical measures to cultivate an organizational culture that encourages employees to overcome the "trust gap" and speak up without fear of retribution. As this is an exploratory study, no hypotheses are propounded. Analysis of the data indicated that the incidence of abusive workplace behavior in the respondents' organizations was not high. Women managers exhibited fewer abusive behaviors than men, although the mean differences between men and women were very modest. This might be explained on the basis of the theory of "ethics of care", where women, in contrast to men, tend to support cooperation and shared decision-making rather than overly strict supervision. We further found that abusive behavior was more prevalent in the private concern than the public organizations. It is possible that regulation in public organizations contributes to the reduction of abuse in the workplace. In addition, we found that workers reported more cases of abuse than managers but that the mean differences between employees and managers were minor. Men reported more cases of abusive behavior than women, but the differences we found were insignificant. Indeed, the differences found in all the comparisons were insignificant and cannot serve to form conclusions indicating a trend. Nevertheless, we advocate that governments raise awareness of the issue and the desired outcomes while enhancing workers' protection and dignity. To that end, the relevant authorities should employ uniform terminology and promote applicable legislation.

Workplace Violence , 2019

Workplace violence has been recognized as an alarming phenomenon around the globe. Due to inaccessibility of data, the size of this problem remains unknown. However, recent studies indicate that the enormous costs of workplace violence are becoming progressively more apparent. Although incidences of workplace violence have been documented in different work environments, reports indicate that women have been on receiving end with some sectors such as health and public employment being one of the main areas exposed it. Workplace violence refers to “violence or the threat of violence directed at someone on duty or at work”. Usually workplace violence is perpetrated in form of simple assault but it can range from physical assault, bullying, sexual harassment, verbal abuse, and homicide. The rising levels of workplace violence are considered in different quarters as a reflection of the increasing incidences of violence in facets of social life