{"id":13898,"date":"2017-11-09T16:17:35","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T16:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=13898"},"modified":"2017-11-09T16:31:36","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T16:31:36","slug":"dont-suffer-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=13898","title":{"rendered":"Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t suffer in silence"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

It all started with what at first glance might appear as an innocent comment here and there. But then the boss persisted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Although Unite member\u00c2\u00a0 and Woolwich Ferry worker Colleen* had told him repeatedly his advances were not welcome, they continued for years, and like so many women who are harassed by their superiors in the workplace, she suffered in silence out of fear.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt made me seriously uncomfortable \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it frightened me,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she explained.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But as recent widely reported accounts have shown, Colleen is far from being alone.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Following the allegations made against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, people from around the globe came forward with their own stories on social media and elsewhere, showing the world that sexual harassment is in fact a reality for virtually all women and many men too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is especially true for workers who face the power imbalance inherent in employee and employer relationships.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A TUC report last year<\/a> found that more than half of women have experienced some form of sexual harassment at work, with an even larger majority of\u00c2\u00a0 young women \u00e2\u20ac\u201c two in three \u00e2\u20ac\u201c reporting the same.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A third of those polled have been subject to unwanted sexual comments at work and one in five having experienced unwanted sexual advances.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In most cases, the perpetrator was a male colleague, with one in five saying they were victims of a boss or manager.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And sexual harassment, the report found, is even more rampant when workers are on zero hours contracts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to understand why \u00e2\u20ac\u201c if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t comply or you speak out when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re harassed, you can effectively be \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fired\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by having your hours reduced to zero, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got little recourse to the law.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In such an environment, coming forward is frightening \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially when your livelihood is on the line.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why perhaps it is far from surprising that, as the TUC report found, four out of five women do not report sexual harassment to their employer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But strong unions, Colleen would find out earlier this year, can make a big difference.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt was so hard because all these people are above me,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said when the harassment became unbearable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut it got to the point where it was seriously making me ill,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bSo I finally decided to speak out.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Encouraged by a workplace rep, Colleen filed a grievance, but management failed to address the issue. And then something remarkable happened.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Colleen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s colleagues \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the vast majority of them men \u00e2\u20ac\u201c said enough was enough. In the spirit of solidarity, they downed tools in support of their colleague so she could get the justice she deserved.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In total, the union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ferry workers planned 12 days of strike action. After two days of strikes, management came to the negotiating table and was forced to listen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the end, the manager who had harassed Colleen for years was dismissed, as was his manager \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the issue was dealt with in what she felt was a satisfactory manner.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite regional officer Onay Kasab said that Colleen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story showed the power that unions and workplace solidarity can have in tackling a problem as endemic as sexual harassment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn far too many cases, women who are the victims of sexual harassment at work either suffer in silence or if they speak out, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re moved to another part of the business; they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re ignored or they themselves become a target \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re viciously ostracised and further abused. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m proud to say that in this instance it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the victim who suffered the detriment of speaking out \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it was the perpetrator.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn achieving this aim, we decided not to rely on the law or internal grievance procedures \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we took collective action and got it out in the open.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe openness and solidarity from colleagues across the Ferry meant that management couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do what it would under normal circumstances \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hide or start rumours and isolate the victim. We showed when people get together and stand up against what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong, solidarity wins.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*Name changed to protect member<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For more advice please contact your local rep or get in touch with your regional equalities officer<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It all started with what at first glance might appear as an innocent comment here and there. But then the boss persisted.   Although Unite member\u00c2\u00a0 and Woolwich Ferry worker Colleen* had told him repeatedly his advances were not welcome, they continued for years, and like so many women who are harassed by their superiors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[379,772,209],"wps_subtitle":"Harassed at work? Unite can help","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13900,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13898\/revisions\/13900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}