{"id":9571,"date":"2016-08-19T13:52:42","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T12:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9571"},"modified":"2016-08-22T12:52:15","modified_gmt":"2016-08-22T11:52:15","slug":"sexual-harassment-not-banter-not-funny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9571","title":{"rendered":"Sexual harassment: Not banter, not funny"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nearly two in three young women, and predominantly those in zero hours\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 contracts or agency work, are sexually harassed at work, a TUC survey <\/a>has revealed.<\/p>\n

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The TUC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s research, in partnership with Everyday Sexism Project, has found that 52 per cent of those surveyed said they had experienced some form of sexual harassment at work, and, despite this alarming figure, only one per cent of those reported it to a union rep.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is likely because of how humiliating and frightening sexual harassment can often feel, but this research also tells us that younger women and those working in zero hours contracts or agency work are often the victims of this harassment \u00e2\u20ac\u201c people who are distinctly less likely to be a union member,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 a Unite spokesperson says.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite has made many inroads in its campaign to prevent and tackle sexual harassment at work \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we have signed a number of workplace agreements and trained our reps and members to recognise and appropriately deal with sexual harassment cases.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut it is vital that all employers, managers and supervisors are also trained in the same way, and that the message is sent to all our members, across all sectors, that their union can support them in these circumstances.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Extensive research <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In what is one of the most extensive pieces of research on sexual harassment at work in Europe, the TUC survey suggests a serious problem in employers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 lack of urgency in dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace, and that it is more common in male-dominated industries.<\/p>\n

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A Unite rep at an engineering company, described the sexual harassment he witnessed his colleague face.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAn older man who worked here began speaking to one of our female electrical fitters in completely inappropriate ways; making innuendoes and smarmy comments about her,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe sexual harassment she went through was relentless. Then one day he smacked her on her bottom and jeered at her. She did her best to stand her ground, but in the end she felt really run down by his behaviour and came to me for help.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe went to management but they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to care. It was dismissed as trivial and unimportant, written off as workplace \u00e2\u20ac\u0098banter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and that the victim was overreacting,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t until further action was taken through Unite to protect the woman that the harassment was finally stopped. Unfortunately by then the she was so unhappy that she felt she had to leave her job.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The TUC survey has shown that women of all ages, social grades, and ethnicities experienced sexual harassment in all sectors, industries and regions, and that for many women, sexual harassment is not a one-off incident, but something that has happened to them many times during their working lives.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eleven per cent of women working in retail and nine per cent of those working in health services said the sexual harassment they experienced was from a third party \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a customer or client.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unlawful <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Equality Act made this form of harassment unlawful in 2010, with a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthree strike and you are booked\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 clause in Section 40 of the Act \u00e2\u20ac\u201c meaning an employee had to have been harassed three times and have informed the employer on all occasions before it could be taken seriously.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut despite overwhelming opposition, even this small lifeline was repealed by the Tory government in 2013, who claim it is \u00e2\u20ac\u0098unfair that employers should be liable for the actions of third parties over whom they have no direct control<\/a>,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 a Unite spokesperson says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSo it is more vital than ever that we stand shoulder to shoulder with the TUC to get the message out that the trade union movement will not tolerate any form of sexual harassment and will irrevocably support all our members who may become victims.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Are you affected by sexual harassment at work? We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to hear from you \u00e2\u20ac\u201c contact us or send\u00c2\u00a0 your story to <\/em><\/strong>unitelive@unitetheunion.org<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly two in three young women, and predominantly those in zero hours\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 contracts or agency work, are sexually harassed at work, a TUC survey has revealed.   The TUC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s research, in partnership with Everyday Sexism Project, has found that 52 per cent of those surveyed said they had experienced some form of sexual harassment at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[379,209],"wps_subtitle":"Research shows millions of women affected ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9571"}],"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=9571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9574,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9571\/revisions\/9574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}