In a recent resolution on the prevention of violence against women, CESI had expressed deep concern about the continued prevalence of harassment and violence against women in Europe and called for decisive measures for their protection. The resolution states that the pandemic has caused disproportional adverse consequences for women and further deteriorated equality challenges which women had been facing already long before the Covid-19 crisis.

Committed to the promotion of policies that can ensure the dignity and safety of women, CESI also participated in a recent consultation of the European Commission on gender based violence and harassment and shared its priorities on the topic.

Last week, CESI and its members had the opportunity to attend a timely online conversation on the topic in the frame of an EU co-funded multi-sectoral European social partner project on “The role of social partners in preventing third-party violence and harassment at work”, which counts also CESI among the partners in the project Chaired by the CEMR (Council of European Municipalities and Regions), a 2^nd webinar of the TPV project aimed to understand gender-based violence and its impact on workers in depth, present possible prevention measures, and discuss the potential update of the European Multi-sectoral Guidelines to tackle third-party violence and harassment related to work, signed by CESI in 2018.

Manuela Tomei, Director of the Work Quality Department at the International Labour Organization, Karen Vandekerckhove, Head of Unit of Gender Equality at the European Commission, and Jane Pillinger, researcher of the TPV project, presented the international and European dimension of the issue and discussed with members and representatives of trade unions and employer organizations on possible solutions to end third party violence against women. In particular, the discussion focussed around the negative spill over effects on work caused by violence on workers, and especially by domestic violence, which affects women in great proportion, even on a greater proportion in the context of the Covid-19 and lockdown period.

Against this background, the representative of the European Commission informed about an upcoming proposal for a Directive on gender-based violence and domestic violence, as part of a bigger package, due to be presented by the end of this year.

For CESI, this is a way of continuing the awareness-raising action on the topic started with its own project on third-party violence at work carried out between 2019 and 2020, in particular through the related #NOVIOLENCEATWORK campaign based on a video and manifesto against third-party violence at work.

About the multi sectoral European social partner project

“The role of social partners in preventing third-party violence and harassment at work” is a joint project of HOSPEEM, EPSU, CEMR, CESI (co-applicants) and ETF, ETNO, ETUCE, EUPAE, UITP (associated organizations), co-funded by the European Commission, for the years 2021 to 2023.

The project aims to assess the effectiveness at the national level of the EU multi-sectoral social partners’ Guidelines to tackle and prevent third-party violence and harassment related to work (2010), which CESI signed in 2018, as part of the TUNED delegation, for the central government administrations’ sector. It will identify areas for improvements and explore possibilities for reviewing the Guidelines’ content and nature considering recent legislative developments and the ILO Convention 190 on Violence and Harassment (2019). The final objective of the project is to become an awareness-raising tool on a gender-sensitive approach to third-party violence and harassment at the workplace.