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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/ver-nica-mont-far/women-health-workplace-violence-hurts-us-all?utm_source=50.50&utm_campaign=74a08775cc-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_21_01_40&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_89d6c8b9eb-74a08775cc-408071349">https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/ver-nica-mont-far/women-health-workplace-violence-hurts-us-all?utm_source=50.50&utm_campaign=74a08775cc-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_21_01_40&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_89d6c8b9eb-74a08775cc-408071349</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ATTACKS AGAINST WOMEN HEALTH WORKERS SHOW HOW WORKPLACE VIOLENCE HURTS US ALL.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Violence in the health sector, where a majority of workers are women, accounts for a quarter
of assaults at work – impacting societies at large.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><a href="https://cdn.opendemocracy.net/files/imagecache/wysiwyg_imageupload_lightbox_preset/wysiwyg_imageupload/565030/image1_1.png" title=""" "><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#0061BF;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;background:#F3F3F3;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="460" height="307" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image001.png@01D49AF9.B0F9EB90" alt="Nurses and caregivers join a national strike in Auckland, New Zealand 2012. Photo: Flickr/Simon Oosterman. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Some"></span></a><i><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;background:#F3F3F3"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;background:#F3F3F3">Nurses and caregivers join
a national strike in Auckland, New Zealand - Photo: Flickr/Simon Oosterman. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Some rights reserved.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">The worldwide #MeToo movement has revealed how sexual harassment and assault are part of
most women’s professional lives. However, we must not overlook other forms of violence that women suffer at work – and how this affects society at large. The experiences of emergency nurses and other health workers, a majority of whom around the world are
women, shows this clearly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Insults, humiliation, and discrimination have become ‘natural’ aspects of many work relationships.
When attacked, many women do not report these incidents, not knowing who to turn to or out of fear of losing their jobs. Even worse, some women feel that violence is an inevitable ‘part of their jobs.’
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">In Mexico, as many as
</span><a href="http://www.inegi.org.mx/saladeprensa/boletines/2017/endireh/endireh2017_08.pdf"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#0061BF;text-decoration:none">nine out of 10 women</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">
who’ve experienced physical or sexual violence at work never asked their colleagues or supervisors for help or filed complaints to police or their employers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#666666">Some women feel that violence is an inevitable ‘part of their jobs.’
<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Men can also suffer violence and harassment in the workplace, but gender stereotyping and
inequality in power relationships make women much more vulnerable to such abuse. They may find no relief at home either, with domestic violence a widespread problem. According to the United Nations' gender equality organisation, UN Women,
</span><a href="http://www.unwomen.org/es/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#0061BF;text-decoration:none">35% of women around the world</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">
have experienced physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Symptoms of violence at work include anxiety, depression, panic attacks, sleep disorders,
attention deficit and memory problems. Women who face such abuse may leave their jobs, interrupting employment with consequences for current and future income (including fewer rights to pensions), exacerbating the already unacceptable global</span><a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/es/2017/03/onu-mujeres-afirma-que-la-brecha-salarial-del-23-entre-mujeres-y-hombres-es-un-robo/"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#0061BF;text-decoration:none">
gender pay gap of 23%</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Even though workplace violence affects all sectors and all categories of workers, the health
sector – where women make up the majority of workers around the world – best illustrates the seriousness of the situation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><a href="https://cdn.opendemocracy.net/files/imagecache/wysiwyg_imageupload_lightbox_preset/wysiwyg_imageupload/565030/VMviolence2.png" title=""" "><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#0061BF;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;background:#F3F3F3;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="460" height="345" id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image002.png@01D49AF9.B0F9EB90" alt="A protest of student nurses in Paris, France 2006. Photo: manu_le_manu/Flickr. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Some rights reserved. "></span></a><i><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;background:#F3F3F3"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;background:#F3F3F3">A protest of student nurses
in Paris, France - Photo: manu_le_manu/Flickr. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">By
</span><a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/author/ver-nica-mont-far"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#0061BF;text-decoration:none">Verónica Montúfar</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">
- </span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#5C6C7B">8 December 2018</span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"> - Verónica Montúfar is a sociologist and gender
equality officer at Public Services International.</span><i><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;background:#F3F3F3"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that violence in the health sector makes
up </span><a href="http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/workplace/es/"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#0061BF;text-decoration:none">a quarter</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">
of all assaults that take place on the job. A 2011 </span><a href="https://www.ena.org/docs/default-source/resource-library/practice-resources/workplace-violence/2011-emergency-department-violence-surveillance-report.pdf?sfvrsn=5ad81911_4"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#0061BF;text-decoration:none">report</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">
from the United States found that 54% of emergency nurses reported experiencing violence at work within seven days of participating in this study.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">When researchers ask nurses
</span><a href="http://www.world-psi.org/sites/default/files/documents/research/en_gbvworkplacereport2018_final.pdf"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#0061BF;text-decoration:none">where this violence comes from</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">,
they point to patients and visitors on one hand, and colleagues and superiors on the other.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Work-related violence is also related to external factors. It intensifies in situations
of war and economic crisis, for instance, and can be a consequence of privatisation and austerity measures which bring more deregulation and increased flexibility that enable more violence against workers in general.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">The International Labour Organization (ILO) notes that risks of violence at work
</span><a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_dialogue/@actrav/documents/publication/wcms_117581.pdf"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#0061BF;text-decoration:none">are seen to increase due to factors</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">
like restructuring and other changes to production processes, insufficient staff numbers, excessive workloads, non-standard contracts and unsafe working environments.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#666666;border:solid #0061BF 2.25pt;padding:15.0pt">Violence at work can heighten fear and anxiety
levels more widely in society.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">This doesn’t impact workers in these places only. As you can see in too many hospitals,
exhaustion, depression and insufficient staffing affects the quality of services for patients and their families.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Violence at work can heighten fear and anxiety levels more widely in society. Victims and
perpetrators can be employers and workers or “third parties” including clients, customers, service providers, users, patients and members of the public. Governments that introduce austerity measures, weakening public services, can also be considered third
parties.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">For this reason,
</span><a href="http://www.world-psi.org/es/home"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#0061BF;text-decoration:none">Public Services International</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">
(PSI), where I work, has been advocating for the inclusion of this third parties’ concept in characterising work-related violence. We’ve seen how such violence can have a direct impact on the quality of public services – and how deteriorating work environments,
and deregulating and dismantling the public sector to hand it over to private capital, can exacerbate risks of abuse. We must battle these forces.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Next year, the ILO will negotiate a new agreement to address violence and harassment against
women and men at work. We’re celebrating the inclusion of the concept of ‘third parties’ that are impacted by such violence in this
</span><a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_637108.pdf"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#0061BF;text-decoration:none">agreement’s draft text</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">.
We must recognise how important dialogue and concrete action is, from employers, workers and governments. We are all victims of work-related violence. Eliminating it is a task for us all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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