The ILO’s public campaign encourages workers to speak up against harassment and violence at work
The ILO and the Never Okay Project are conducting a series of campaigns to raise awareness and encourage a social movement against harassment and violence at work.
The ILO in collaboration with the Never Okay Project (NOP), an organization deals with the creation of workplace without sexual harassment, is conducting a public campaign to promote the ratification of the ILO Convention No. 190 (C190) on Harassment and Violence at Work. The campaign is conducted from end of July to October 2022 in the forms of social media campaign, workers’ survey and public petition.
The A to Z social media campaign to promote the ratification of the ILO Convention No. 190. The campaign is part of the ILO global and national campaign that invite participation of all its member States and the public at large to promote the ratification of the C190. C190 is the first international treaty to recognize the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment, including gender-based violence and harassment.
The social media campaign does not only aim to raise the public’s awareness about C190 and issues related to harassment and violence that still happen a lot at workplaces, but also to encourage a social movement to stop the silence against this issue."
Dyah R. Sudarto, ILO’s programme coordinator for C190 on work violence and harassment issues
An A to Z social media campaign raises key information about C190 and various work harassment and violence, including real stories about harassment and violence faced by workers that have been documented by the NOP. The C, for example, represents the campaign about cyberbullying. It highlights the 2020 NOP survey that 29 percent female respondents and 11 percent male respondents had received negative comments, criticisms and insults about their body shapes during teleworking.
Meanwhile the E talks about the exploitation, highlighting the story of anonymous worker who was forced to dress sexy to entertain her office clients. The campaign also underlines types of exploitation, the connection with C190 and efforts that could be taken to fight it.
“The social media campaign does not only aim to raise the public’s awareness about C190 and issues related to harassment and violence that still happen a lot at workplaces, but also to encourage a social movement to stop the silence against this issue. Thus, we ask the participation of the public to share their stories and provide some actions that could be taken at their own workplace,” explained Dyah R. Sudarto, ILO’s programme coordinator for C190 on work violence and harassment issues.
To strengthen the social movement, the campaign also includes workers’ survey and the online public petition. The survey provides a venue for workers to share their own experiences, the actions that they choose to take, the impacts that they face and their hopes about the creation of workplaces that are free from harassment and violence.
The survey also documents cases of violence and harassment at work and aims to provide more information and data on workplace occurrences that could be beneficial for policymakers and relevant stakeholders for policy development and public advocacy.
Meanwhile the public petition is design to influence the public and decision makers about the importance of the ratification of C190 in Indonesia. In collaboration with NOP and Change.org, a worldwide petition website with over 400 million users, the public petition aims to get 25 thousand signatures.
“We hope that through this campaign and other activities that the ILO has conducted with its tripartite partners—governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations— as well as other organizations and mass media, we can encourage the ratification of C190, the establishment of workplace mechanisms on this issue and the protection of workers,” added Dyah.
