Violence and harassment at work is endemic globally and can be psychological, physical or sexual. Whether it’s directed at women, migrant workers or other discriminated groups, or at workers in specific sectors, preventative measures are a priority, says Nick Warburton, but providing safe reporting mechanisms and effective training to improve workplace cultures are also important.

In April, the trade union Usdaw published the results from its latest annual survey of more than 5,500 retail staff members, which revealed that violence against shopworkers across England and Wales had more than doubled in 2023 compared to the previous year.
 
Sixty per cent of respondents said the incidents of violence, threats and abuse were triggered by shoplifting and armed robbery.
 
However, it’s not the only trade union to raise concerns about levels of violence in public-facing industries. UNISON, the UK’s largest union, representing more than 1.3 million members, recently launched its End Violence at Work campaign.
 
Recognising that violence towards its members working in sectors like social and health care, law enforcement and education has been getting worse, UNISON is calling on employers to sign up to its Violence at Work Charter by committing to its 10 standards.
 
These cover critical safeguards like providing a written violence and aggression at work policy that all staff members, including lone workers, can access, and conducting thorough risk assessments for employees, especially vulnerable staff.

Scale of the problem

In 2021, global charity Lloyd’s Register Foundation (the Foundation) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) joined forces with Gallup to create the first global survey on violence and harassment in the workplace as part of the Foundation’s broader World Risk Poll, which canvassed more than 125,000 people in 121 countries.
 
One of the major takeaways from World Risk Poll 2021: Safe at Work? was that one-in-five respondents had experienced some form of violence and harassment at work during their lifetime.
 
According to the follow-up Digging Deeper: global experiences of workplace violence and harassment documentary, this equates to more than 743 million workers.
 
The 2021 poll also reveals that psychological violence (and harassment) is the most frequently reported form (16.5 per cent), more than double that of physical violence or harassment (7.4 per cent) and three times that of sexual violence/harassment (5.5 per cent).
 
This is an important point because historically there has been no “widely-agreed-upon definition of what constitutes violence and harassment at work”, which is why the ILO adopted a new labour standard (Convention No 190) in 2019 to do just this and is encouraging countries to adopt it.
 
One of the striking features of the World Risk Poll is the huge disparities between different countries in the levels of violence and harassment reported, with Australia topping the table at 48 per cent and Tajikistan at the bottom at 3 per cent.
 
As Susan Maybud, an international consultant on gender equality and women’s advancement in the workplace, explains in Digging Deeper, there is significant underreporting of incidents, particularly in countries that record low levels of violence and harassment.
 
The reasons are varied, but it can be that individuals don’t want to expose themselves by reporting cases, especially if the perpetrator is their line manager and they fear there will be consequences.
 
“People need to feel comfortable reporting,” says Maybud. “Women, especially younger ones, don’t want to come forward and report it. They feel that there will be a stigma attached to something that has happened to them.”
 
Interestingly, the countries that report the highest levels of violence and harassment at work are all high-income nations. One of the explanations given for this is that people feel confident that reporting will lead to improvements.
 
What is clear is violence at work is endemic and instances may have increased post-pandemic.
 
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) notes that violence at work statistics for England and Wales have not been updated since November 2020. However, using crime survey data, it estimates that between 2019-2020 there were 688,000 instances.
 
In its 2021/2022 technical report, HSE says reporting should restart in 2022/2023 and it will be interesting to see how these figures compare to the previous data when they are published.
 
One of the headline insights from the 2021 World Risk Poll was that people often reported experiencing violence and harassment multiple times. This repeated occurrence suggests there is a failure to deal with incidents when they arise, the report concludes.

Prevention measures

Prevention must be the priority, insists Maybud. “If you follow the OSH cycle, it applies to violence and harassment as well,” she says. “You are looking at prevention through to reporting and taking measures to mitigate the risks.”
 
In Great Britain, employers have a legal duty to manage the risk of work-related violence as they would any other risk, as set out in the Health and Safety at Work Act etc 1974.
 
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 outline what employers must do, including undertaking a risk assessment and implementing effective controls.
 
Failure to do this can result in costly prosecutions, as Luton Borough Council discovered in October 2020 when it was fined £104,000 (reduced from £300,000 due to a lack of revenue because of the pandemic). An assistant head at a school the council maintained was left with brain damage after being assaulted by a disruptive pupil.
 
HSE’s prosecution found “significant shortcomings in relation to the measures at the school, regarding violence and aggression posed by pupils to others”. Significantly, staff were not provided with training to deal with violent and aggressive pupils and there was a failure to manage the risks.
 
“The requirement punishable in criminal law is that the risk assessment must be suitable and sufficient and, for employers with five or more staff, it must be recorded,” says Dr Simon Joyston-Bechal, specialist health and safety lawyer at Turnstone Law. 
 
“This means there is an obligation for many organisations to recognise the risk of violence and adopt appropriate written policies, procedures, guidance and training that is sufficiently tailored to protect staff across their various roles.”
 
Susan Maybud says a wealth of guidance exists to help employers. She cites the World Health Organization and the ILO, who, together with partners, developed bespoke guidance aimed at employers in healthcare; a sector that globally has a high risk of violence.
 
When formulating policies, she says any protective measures introduced must reflect the unique risks that each individual employee faces. This could, for example, be buddy systems for individuals that work nightshifts, lone work or operate remotely.
 
It is also critical that policies are designed so that all staff feel protected by them. One way to do this, she says, is to encourage employee buy-in by canvassing views on what a workplace violence policy should contain.
 
“Protection of workers should not be limited to those working in formal employment settings,” adds Maybud. “ILO Convention 190 stipulates that states shall take appropriate measures in recognising the important role of public authorities in the case of informal economy workers as well.”
 
This October, the Worker Protection Act 2023 comes into force in the UK, placing a legal duty on employers to work preventatively to combat sexual harassment in the workplace.
 
Although this legislation does not extend to employees that work with third parties such as customers or clients, charity White Ribbon UK welcomes its preventative focus, noting that “it encourages organisations to ensure that their workplace culture, policies and best practices work for all members of their team and puts the safety of their employees at the forefront”.

White Ribbon UK is campaigning to extend the Worker Protection Act 2023 to cover individuals who work with third parties and while the legislation is not perfect, it is an important step in the right direction.
 

Nick Warburton is a highly experienced freelance journalist, editor and researcher. He is a former acting editor of IOSH magazine and a former editor of SHP magazine.