JUly 1, 2024
Women workers leading to end gender-based violence and harassment at work
Women workers led a global campaign that resulted in a binding international labor treaty — ILO C190 — protecting workers from gender-based violence and harassment in the world of work. Devex spoke with two leaders at the forefront of the movement about what’s needed to implement it.
By Devex Partnerships//01 July 2024, Originally Published on Devex
“I worked for a travel goods manufacturing company in Zimbabwe. … Every day, when we were going home, we would queue up and there would be body searches … I used to think that even though it was a woman searching us women, it just wasn't right,” said Lorraine Sibanda, the president of StreetNet International, an independent alliance dedicated to improving the working lives of street vendors in over 50 countries.
Globally, 50% of women face the risk of sexual harassment, violence, and discrimination in the workplace in their lifetime, according to the International Center for Research on Women. Previously, limited national laws have made it difficult to prevent and address gender-based violence and harassment against women workers.
However, women workers are looking to make the world of work safer for all workers through the implementation of International Labour Organization Convention 190 — the first international treaty to recognize the right of everyone to work free from violence and harassment — especially women in the informal economy and migrant workers, who disproportionately experience GBVH.
Five years ago, in June 2019, governments, employers, and worker representatives from 187 countries adopted C190. It has since become the fastest-ratified ILO convention in history. While it has currently been ratified by 44 countries, more needs to be done to make workplaces safer and free from harassment for women in all countries.
Women-led organizations from around the globe and across sectors came together to advocate for the binding convention, including trade unions led by women, organizations representing women in the informal economy, groups of persons with disabilities, sex workers and human rights organizations, and women migrant workers.
Women workers defining GBVH and the ‘world of work’
StreetNet is one of the woman-led organizations that spearheaded this cross-movement coalition. In the work that led up to the adoption of C190, StreetNet held close discussions with its members to ensure their experiences were reflected in C190’s definition of GBVH, explained Sibanda.
The lived reality of women in the informal economy helped inform the convention’s broad definition. For Sibanda, GBVH in the world of work includes a wide range of behaviors that make a person uncomfortable because of their gender. At times, fellow workers are the ones committing these violations, other times it can be customers, supervisors, or others in positions of power, she explained.
Gender-based harassment has many consequences for women, including hindering them from fully and freely participating in the economy, in society, and in civic life, as well as mental health issues such as loss of confidence, noted Sibanda.
Talking to fellow street vendors about their experiences took Sibanda back to her twenties, at a time when many lacked awareness of what GBVH at work looks like. If a supervisor made advances towards a worker, others would see the woman as someone who had the boss’s attention, and an unfair advantage, she explained. Using her experience as a trade unionist, she encouraged other women to join unions, share their experiences, and gain a deeper understanding of the many forms GBVH can take in the world of work.
To the International Domestic Workers Federation, the first global union federation founded by women domestic workers from low- and middle-income countries, the articulation of the “world of work” was nonnegotiable, explained their secretary-general Adriana Paz.
ILO C190 breaks new ground in its protection against violence and harassment by covering the entire “world of work” rather than only the workplace, including in homes, travel between home and work, when searching for jobs, during job interviews, on the phone, or while working as interns, she explained.
For example, a group of workers shared an example of a domestic worker in Guatemala who saw a street sign reading “Looking for a domestic worker, call xxx for more information.” When she called, she was given the location of a meeting point, but instead of being given a job, she was kidnapped and murdered, explained Paz, adding that it illustrates just how crucial C190 and its broad definitions are for the protection of workers.
Building lasting power among women workers
IDWF was also instrumental in the adoption of the earlier ILO C189 in 2011, which for the first time acknowledged the rights of domestic workers, including the right to a safe working environment. “C189 paved the way for important agendas for the women’s movement, including convention C190,” said Paz. To advance C189, domestic workers educated colleagues and those in other sectors about the full range of behaviors that constitute GBVH.
Spreading awareness became an important piece of the work because “when you have generations of women subjected to gender-based violence, it becomes normalized,” said Paz.
Using the knowledge and power gained from their successful campaign for C189, IDWF — together with a broader movement of women workers — started campaigning and lobbying governments for the adoption of a binding instrument on violence and harassment. What Paz found exciting about the campaign that led up to C190 was seeing how union women and unorganized women workers fought side by side.
Unions of domestic workers were also rich sources of testimonies, explained Paz. “They gave us clear instructions about how the experience of violence should be looked at … including concepts such as the third-party perpetrator, the world of work, and digital jobs platforms,” she said. Domestic workers identified all of these as sites and entry points where workers can be subjected to harassment, as well as the range of potential perpetrators.
IDWF didn’t only involve its members as survivors of GBVH but as cocreators of potential solutions. It also worked with domestic workers in creating a strategy for the adoption of a meaningful instrument and prepared them for engagements with employers and governments, explained Paz. This created the momentum for domestic workers to come to ILO and provide crucial expertise and input on the convention. By sharing their experiences of harassment and violence, women workers built solidarity and power, she added.
For Sibanda, the results of this decades-long work are not only individual workers feeling more supported, but also the creation of long-lasting collaborations and the space and confidence to engage with ILO, national governments, local authorities, and other stakeholders. “We have always engaged with local authorities to negotiate for our rights, but C190 gave us credibility and justification,” she said. Another example of the lasting impact of the worker’s C190 campaign is that women are now more willing to break the silence about violence at work, added Paz.
“I had the opportunity to engage with African governments and show them how much we need the convention as workers in the informal economy. For me, that moment was epic. Until today, we have that opening to engage with the International Labour Conference,” said Sibanda.
Moving the needle on implementation
Over the last five years, women workers in the informal economy and migrant workers have been on the front lines advocating for the implementation of C190 and putting its principles and promises into practice. Sibanda and Paz agree that ratification of C190 is vital to hold countries accountable. The convention outlines complementary responsibilities for governments, employers, and unions to protect workers against violence and harassment, explained Paz.
StreetNet holds frequent training sessions for its members to help prepare them for advocacy work with their respective governments and to push for ratification and implementation. “Ratification is only the beginning. What really matters is the implementation,” said Paz, adding that “we use ratification campaigns as an anchor for mobilization, recruitment, and membership and leadership building that anchors our conversations around these conventions.”
The adoption of the convention represents the power of women workers from across regions, sectors, and different walks of life coming together to advocate for their rights in the world of work. “The lasting impact [of C190] is that everybody saw us, we were visible, recognized as people representing workers in the informal economy. We spoke from our lived experiences,” said Sibanda.
Preparing for the future amidst climate change
Since C190 was adopted, women worker leaders have been leading its implementation in workplaces, in legislation, and through trade union initiatives. Yet, the challenges facing women workers keep evolving. Continued implementation of C190 needs to recognize and respond to the different ways in which escalating climate impacts can increase the risk of GBVH in the world of work.
Women workers such as Paz and Sibanda have seen the impact of climate change on workers firsthand. Floods and hurricanes can drown or blow away makeshift tables used by street vendors, and even their homes. Following extreme weather events, women are especially vulnerable as sleeping out in the open or in unsafe shelters exposes them to abuse, explained Sibanda.
“When conditions are no longer liveable, people engage in unsafe migration where we see trafficking, forced labor, and violence by illegal recruiters,” said Paz. The impacts of climate disasters exacerbate existing risks for GBVH in the world of work, including economic insecurity and vulnerability. For example, increased heat stress leads to reduced productivity, making male supervisors more likely to commit violence and harassment against women workers, especially in the garment sector.
In such a scenario, local governments must extend social protection to workers, explained Sibanda. Just as women workers pushed for the groundbreaking principles of C190, they also have a unique role to play in addressing GBVH and climate risks.
Visit Women Rising — a new narrative series spotlighting the intersection of gender-based violence and harassment and climate change in the world of work.
This content is sponsored by FORGE. To learn more, visit the series website.