No one should remain silent on this unacceptable issue of sexual harassment and violence against women. We all have to shoulder our responsibilities and do our bit to ensure gender equality becomes a reality for future generations. It is especially important for men to speak out and show solidarity to female colleagues, as the responsibility to enact change does not rest solely among women.

In the context of multiple high-level allegations and a growing undercurrent of reporting incidents of sexual harassment and violence in all sectors of society, and in workplaces, Luc Triangle, industriAll Europe General Secretary commented, “No one should remain silent on this unacceptable issue of sexual harassment and violence against women. We all have to shoulder our responsibilities and do our bit to ensure gender equality becomes a reality for future generations. It is especially important for men to speak out and show solidarity to female colleagues, as the responsibility to enact change does not rest solely among women.”

This year the ETUC has published a briefing promoting trade unions’ collective bargaining policies and procedures to tackle harassment and violence against women at work. Trade unions are leading the fight against violence in the workplace and encouraging the following measures:

1.    Negotiating policies, procedures and awareness-raising actions at sectoral and company level.
2.    Producing model workplace policies, and training workplace trade union representatives to negotiate agreements and policies on sexual harassment and violence.
3.    Ensuring that health and safety and wellbeing initiatives include solutions to harassment and violence against women.
4.    Providing information and support to workers experiencing violence and harassment at work or at home.

Together, let’s act!

Participate and share our call in the online action by using the Twitter hashtags #MeToo, #YoTambien, #BalanceTonPorc.

Take the pledge ‘Violence against women: not in my union, not in my workplace’ by IndustriALL Global Union.

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Background ETUC study ‘Safe at home, Safe at Work’ (2017)

IndustriAll European Trade Union represents the voice of 7 million working men and women across supply chains in manufacturing, mining and energy sectors across Europe. We aim to protect and advance the rights of the workers. Our federation has 177 trade union affiliates in 38 European countries. Our objective is to be a powerful player in the European political arena vis-à-vis European companies, European industries, employers’ associations and European institutions.