MEPs on Tuesday (12 March) called on member states to ratify the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) convention on violence and harassment — the first international treaty to recognise the right to be free from violence at work.
With 517 votes in favour, 59 against and 26 abstentions, the European Parliament gave the green light to a Council decision asking EU countries to ratify the ILO convention, which still needs to be formally adopted by the council.
“[The convention] covers the private and public sectors [including the informal economy] and includes persons in training and jobseekers,” EU commissioner Věra Jourová told the chamber.
The ILO convention will require member states to adopt measures to prevent violence and harassment at work, as well as safeguards to protect victims, witnesses and whistleblowers from victimisation or retaliation.
To date, only eight member states have ratified the treaty: Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
“By backing this convention, we’re showing up for workers worldwide and saying ‘enough is enough’,” said Green MEP Kira Marie Peter-Hansen.
Especially to female workers, who are disproportionately affected, MEPs pointed out.
In the EU alone, one-in-three women has experienced some form of physical and/or sexual violence, of which around a third has been harassed at work.
“At home, at work, on the street or on public transport, is there nowhere that women can be safe?” asked centre-right MEP Frances Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald was precisely one of the lead rapporteurs on the directive to combat violence against women, which failed to include rape as an EU crime, along with some work-related measures to better protect women in the workplace.
“A swift ratification of the convention is needed more than ever,” ETUC deputy general secretary Isabelle Schömann told EUobserver.
“In particular as the directive on violence against women will not provide measures to make workplaces safer for female workers and fails to connect the dots between gender-based violence and the world of work,” she added.
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The EU parliament initially included in its position measures to prevent further victimisation of victims and survivors of gender-based violence in the world of work, or the possibility to request short-term flexible working arrangements, to name but a few.
But to no avail: “The directive must be complemented by the ratification of the ILO convention by all EU member states,” Fitzgerald added.
Once it is finally adopted at a parliamentary plenary session in April, the directive will become the first ever EU law to combat violence against women and domestic violence.
