
More than one in five persons in employment have experienced it during their working life, according to the ILO’s most recent estimates.
Violence and harassment (V&H) is an issue that affects a vast number of workplaces throughout all
countries of the world. This phenomenon is not confined to a specific workplace (office, workstation, factory, retail) but can occur when commuting to or from work, in the digital space through work-related communications, during work-related trips, events or social activities, and in home-based offices.
There is growing evidence that no individual, no enterprise, no sector and no society can claim to be entirely free from V&H.
V&H comes at great cost to individual workers’ health, well-being, and livelihoods, to enterprises’ prosperity through reduced productivity, replacement, retirement, and reputational damage, and to society as a whole through the potential loss of productive workers and through increased pressure on social services and welfare.
Looking into the future, the problem may be further exacerbated by a number of factors that are changing the nature of work, such as new forms of employment contracts, the aging workforce, work intensification, digital surveillance, and poor work–life balance.
The adoption of the ILO Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190), and of its accompanying Recommendation (No. 206) therefore marks a high-water mark of the international pledge to recognize the right of everyone to a world of work free from V&H.
This commitment was strengthened in 2022, when the International Labour Conference decided to amend the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998) to include “a safe and healthy working environment” as a fundamental principle and right at work, which is one of the strategies to address V&H in the world of work.
This move also reflects the decade-long evolution of occupational safety and health (OSH) at work from covering safety risks to overall concern for maintaining both physical and mental well-being at work.
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