A unionist, Mr Solomon Adebosin, on Friday, called on workers’ unions to promote integration of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) elimination in workplace policies.
Adebosin, the Executive Secretary of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOB), said in Abeokuta that trade unions should collaborate with management of organizations to formulate policies to eradicate GBV.
Adebosin spoke at a two-day workshop organised by FOBTOB in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) Nigeria.
The unionist delivered a paper on: ”Conceptualizing Sexual and Gender Based Violence: The Role of Trade Unions in Promoting its Integration in the Workplace Policy in Nigeria”.
Adebosin also said that trade unions should educate and enlighten their members on the dangers of GBV.
According to him, gender-based violence can inflict physical or mental harm on a person.
He said, ”Report shows that 56 per cent of women reported experiences of gender-based violence at workplaces, 52 per cent say they have been threatened at workplace or on way to work, while 44 per cent say supervisor has said or done something that made them uneasy.”
The executive secretary said that GBV was one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world and knew no social, economic or national boundaries.
”Worldwide, an estimated one in three women will experience physical or sexual abuse in her lifetime.
”Gender-based violence undermines the health, dignity, security and autonomy of its victims; yet it remains shrouded in a culture of silence.
”GBV occurs in the context of threat of reprisal, promise of reward and abuse of power,” he said.
Adebosin noted that Nigeria had, on Nov. 8, 2022, ratified the Convention 190 of the International Labour Organisation on violence and harassment.
According to him, gender-based violence was more severe for women than men.
”Men can experience sexual harassment but on a minimal level. Women experience it six times more than men,” he said.
The FOBTOB scribe said that an implication of gender-based violence was that the victims risked alienation.
He added that it limited the power of women at workplaces.
He regretted that victims of gender-based violence were less likely to report abuse because they feared retaliation, rejection victimization and stigmatization.
The workshop participants, divided into four groups, narrated sexual harassment experiences, and called for GBV elimination.
