Gendered Workplace Violence: What Role for the Labour Movement?

In 2019 a landmark international convention to eliminate workplace violence and harassment drew attention to the pressing and global issue of gender-based violence at work. The convention covers all sectors, countries, contract types, locations of work, and forms of violence. Yet our understanding of why workplace violence occurs and what forms it takes remains limited. Most studies narrowly define the workplace and focus on sexualized violence in contexts where work is highly regulated. A further limitation is that most response-oriented research centres on how employers are tackling the issue. Although labour movement actors campaigned to adopt and ratify the Violence and Harassment Convention, there has been a wide variation in their uptake of gendered workplace violence as a core labour issue. Why has much of the labour movement been so reluctant to address gendered workplace violence as a priority issue and what role is there for the labour movement in achieving zero tolerance?

This session invites papers that explore questions such as:

• How, why and to what effect have global and national unions responded gender-based violence at work?
• What role has the ILO played as a norms entrepreneur in advocating for sustained policy, campaigning and advocacy among unions on the issue?
• How effective have international actors, including non-government organisations and bilateral donors, been in supporting unions to engage on gender-based violence at work?
• Can enhanced worker representation on gendered workplace violence have a positive effect on union participation?