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ILO / VIOLENCE HARASSMENT CONVENTION
STORY: ILO / VIOLENCE HARASSMENT CONVENTION
TRT: 2:31
SOURCE: ILO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 21 JUNE 2019, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
21 JUNE 2019, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, Assembly Hall
2. Various shots, delegates during electronic voting process
3. SOUNDBITE (French) Jean-Jacques Elmiger, President of the 108th International Labour Conference:
"I have the pleasure and honour to announce the result of the vote on the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the Workplace. In favour 439, against seven.”
4. Various shots, delegates clapping
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Manuela Tomei, Director, Conditions of Work and Employment Programme, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“This is really a ground-breaking Convention. This is the first time that we have standards that say very clearly what violence and harassment is, that it is not to be tolerated and what to do about it and by whom.”
6. Wide shot, Assembly Hall
7. Wide shot, Ryder arriving to press conference
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization:
“This Convention establishes the proposition that everybody has the right to a work environment, a workplace, a working life entirely free of violence and harassment and it is for the authorities to establish general situations of zero tolerance of such phenomena.”
9. Pan left, Ryder leaving press conference
A landmark international agreement banning violence and harassment in the workplace was adopted today (21 Jun) in Geneva at the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Centenary Conference.
The Convention passed with 439 votes in favour, with seven against and 30 abstentions, after a ballot involving representatives of governments, employers and workers, in line with ILO’s tripartite structure.
It is the first new Convention – a legally binding international instrument - agreed by the International Labour Conference since 2011, when the Domestic Workers Convention, was adopted.
According to the new labour standard, violence and harassment at work “constitute a human rights violation or abuse”.
Defined as behaviour that is likely to lead to physical, psychological, sexual or economic harm, violence and harassment are also regarded as a threat to equal opportunities which are unacceptable and incompatible with decent work.
ILO’s Director of the Conditions of Work and Employment Programme Manuela Tomei said this is a “ground-breaking Convention.” She added that this is the first time that “we have standards that say very clearly what violence and harassment is, that it is not to be tolerated and what to do about it and by whom.”
In signing the Convention, Member States have a responsibility to promote a general environment of zero tolerance, while also protecting trainees, interns, volunteers, jobseekers and employees irrespective of their contractual status.
This includes some 2.5 billion people in the informal work sector, whose collective bargaining power should be utilized to promote workers’ rights, ILO said this week.
For ILO, the Convention reflects the organization’s belief that labour is not a commodity and that people’s wellbeing – and peace - depends on respect.
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said this Convention “establishes the proposition that everybody has the right to a work environment, a workplace, a working life entirely free of violence and harassment and it is for the authorities to establish general situations of zero tolerance of such phenomena.”
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