Gender-based violence (GBV) is pervasive, including in the workplaces, and it must end with zero-tolerance and accountability to survivors/victims. In June 2019, ILO C190 and R260 were adopted as a result of the long fighting journey of women workers, trade unions and feminist activists. For the first time, violence and harassment in the world of work are covered in the international labour standards, which provide a global framework to prevent and eliminate workplace violence and harassment as well as access to remedy to the victims/survivors. Since the adoption of C190 and R206, formal collective demands have spiralled out from many feminist groups and trade unions for governments to #RatifyC190.
129 out of 135 countries voted on the adoption of the ILO Convention No. 190 (C190) and Recommendation No. 206 (R206) concerning the elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work in 2019. Until today, the ratification rate is very low, especially in Asia and the Pacific. Globally, only five countries have ratified the Convention. Only one country, Fiji, from Asia and the Pacific region ratified the Convention. Ironically, the Convention is not even ratified in the countries where many women workers who experience violence at work are based. For instance, 80 percent of surveyed garment women workers in Bangladesh have witnessed and experienced sexual harassment and violence at the workplace.
APWLD organised the solidarity protest “Workers Run the World” on May Day along with members, partners and other allies. In order to continue our campaign in amplifying stories and demand of women workers to end gender based violence, APWLD is launching #RatifyC190Now podcast series in 2022 with a call “End GBV in all forms at workplace and everywhere”.
Check out the teaser below:
Episode 1: How Gender Based Violence adversely affects women’s access to decent work and labour rights
Gender based violence contributes to multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination women workers experience. “What are the environments that normalise and condone GBV at the workplace? How does GBV affects the enjoyment of women’s labour right including right to decent work?” Neha Gupta speaks with Daisy Arago, Executive Director of the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights, Philippines to answer this and more.
Episode 2: Resistance of women workers to end GBV in garment sector
Women workers are not silent. They have power to address and challenge the dominant patriarchal workplaces, one of them manifested by gender based violence. Reflecting the stories of women workers in the garment supply chain, this session focuses on how women workers build their resistance, agency and collective power from ground up to end GBV at the workplace.
Episode 3: GBV in entertainment sectors and the urgency of C190 ratification
Women workers in the entertainment sector are hardest hit by the C-19 pandemic, where they are also vulnerable to gender based violence. What types of harassment and assault do women entertainment workers experience? How do they build the pressure to end GBV? How urgent is C190 ratification for them?
Episode 4: The importance of ending gender-based violence at the workplace and at home for domestic workers and home based workers
Research reveals that domestic workers and home-based workers are prone to violence and harassment at work by their employers. How do domestic workers and home-based workers encounter these issues? What are challenges for them to tackle the GBV, how ILO C190 and R260 can be utilised and what are the alternative forms of organising to end GBV at their workplace?
Episode 5: ILO C190 and R260 as frameworks to prevent and eliminate workplace violence and harassment for women workers in Special Economic Zones
ILO noted that sexual harassment are “common across regions, and have remained unchanged over the years”. This session will present cases how International Finansial Institutions (IFIs) and International Investment Agreements (IIAs) through SEZs as a workplace creates an environment where sexual violence can pervade agaist women workers. Research documents that the violence against women, sexual harassment and even rape of women workers in Exporting Processing Zones (EPZs) goes unaddressed due to cultural norms which look down on young women travelling far from home. The session will discuss how ILO C190 and R260 can be of use to protect women workers in SEZs from violence and harassment.
Episode 6: Women workers in agriculture sector speaks up against GBV
Pandemic demonstrated the increase of gender based violence women workers experience in the agriculture sector. The isolated workplace and high unequal power between supervisor and workers made agricultural women workers keep silent. How GBV exacerbates poor working conditions of women workers in agriculture? How do women solve these issues? How can the ratification of C190 shift the power relations and advance accountability?
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