HOW BUSINESSCAN TACKLEGENDER BASEDVIOLENCE IN THE
WORLD OF WORKA TOOLKITFOR ACTION

BUSINESS FIGHTS POVERTY
2019

IN COLLABORATION WITH:2

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

WHAT’S INSIDECONTENTS
03

Foreword

06

The Costs and Effects

08

Methodology

09

Introduction

11

Making the case: Why should business tackle GBV?

16

The Business Fights Poverty 5 Step Framework to
tackle GBV in the world of work
18 Step 1 - PREVENT.
Case Studies Anglo American and Kering
24 Step 2 - COMMIT.
Case Studies Vodafone and CARE STOP Programme
30 Step 3 - PROTECT.
Case Study Unilever
34 Step 4 - COLLABORATE.
Case Studies Diageo and Avon
40 Step 5 - BE ACCOUNTABLE.
Case Study Diageo and CARE

44

Annex 1: The BSR Workplace Diagnostic Tool on Violenceand Harassment

53

Glossary

54

Additional Resources

55

About us56

gender based violence survey questions

58

Acknowledgements

59

Endnotes

3

FOREWORD

G

ender Based Violence (GBV) affects 1 in 3 women
globally and has been referred to by the UN
Secretary General Antonio Guterres as a political‘global pandemic’ and ‘a mark of shame on all oursocieties’1. GBV takes many forms but this Toolkit isfocused on sexual harassment and domestic violence,
which can affect women’s full and equal participationin the workforce.

1 in 3
Gender Based
Violence (GBV) affects
1 in 3 women globally

The costs of GBV are high, withestimates totalling $1.5 trillion, theequivalent of 2% of global GDP2. One
study in Peru found that violencecosts companies $6.7 billion per year
in lost productivity and associatedorganisational costs3.
GBV affects employees physical andmental health and well-being, leading
to stress, anxiety, loss of self-esteem
and motivation. Often women areforced to leave their jobs. It contributes
to the gender pay gap and seriously
affects women’s opportunities foradvancement and career progression.
Women usually bear the brunt of GBV,
although others are at risk, including
men and members of the LGBTQI
community.

The #MeToo movement has shown
there is an unprecedented demandfor change, including from employees
and some business leaders across theworld4. Companies are beginning toinnovate to tackle GBV. More firms must
now follow.

4

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

Companies are beginning
to innovate to tackle genderbased violence. More firms
must now follow.

§Yet, many companies remain unclear
on how to address the problem. That’s
why we agreed to partner to better
understand how businesses can mosteffectively address GBV.
Our Toolkit is the result of thatcollaboration. It includes a 5-stepframework to help companies
comprehensively tackle violence andharassment at work:

1.

PREVENT violence andharassment by identifying
potential risks

2.

COMMIT to gender equalityand diversity across theworkplace3.

PROTECT employees withsupportive policies andprocedures

4.

COLLABORATE AND
CAMPAIGN beyond theimmediate workplace5.

BE ACCOUNTABLE andmonitor action

We have also included a detailed
diagnostic tool developed by Businessfor Social Responsibility to help guidecompanies to take an in-depth lookat their policies, procedures andoperations. This includes evaluating
operations across their value chains.
The Toolkit is timely and will
help companies prepare forthe implementation of the new
International Labour Organisation
Violence and Harassment Convention5.
This was agreed in June 2019 andsets out the first globally recognised
standards for addressing violenceand harassment by governments andemployers. One of the most significant
implications of the Convention is that
it will require a more comprehensive
response from companies.
By taking the actions described inthis Toolkit, companies will also help
contribute to the achievement of
the internationally agreed UN goals,
particularly Sustainable Development
Goal (SDG) 5 on gender equality
and SDG 8 on decent work andinclusive growth. It will also prepare
those engaged in development
and humanitarian operations,
including private sector suppliers, toadhere to the July 2019 OECD DAC
Recommendation on Ending Sexual
Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment6.

5

Three insights have emerged from
our Challenge into how business canaddress GBV:
●Diverse and inclusive workplaces are
essential for effectively tackling GBV,
which all businesses—whether big or
small—should aim to have.
●A new spirit of openness and trust
amongst business is required. Taking
the steps outlined in this Toolkit
will initially lead to an increasing
number of staff reporting incidences.
This must be openly recognised asa positive step towards improved
practice.
●Developing more transparent meansof reporting on the success or failureof approaches is critical, as many of
our case studies lack the means totrack real impacts.

Taking action will benefit
overall performance,
productivity and retention

GBV is not an easy subject to tackle
but it can be done. Our Toolkit
illustrates that there are many actions
businesses can take even if they areat the very start of this journey. The
results will benefit overall performance,
productivity and retention. And, thoseexperiencing GBV deserve nothing less.

Mark Cutifani,Chief Executive,
Anglo American

Hans Peter Lankes,
Vice President, Economics
and Private Sector
Development, IFC

Laurie Lee,
Chief Executive,
CARE International UK

Katherine Stewart,
Director Ethical Trade andSustainability, Primark

6

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

THE COSTS$1.5US

Trillion$89US

millionper year... or 2% of global
GDP THE COST
OF VIOLENCEAGAINST WOMENAT A GLOBALLEVEL(UN Women, 2016).

THE COSTOF SEXUALHARASSMENT FOR
THE CAMBODIANGARMENT SECTOR.
(CARE 2017)35

Employee turnover - may
represent “the largest
single component of theoverall cost of sexual
harassment.”(US Equal Employment opportunities
commission)$6.7USbillionper year

Peru: COMPANIESLOSE MORE THAN
US$6.7 BILLION AYEAR – equivalent to3.7% of GDP (VaraHorna, 2013)34

500,000
LOST WORKING DAYS PER YEAR IN EGYPTDUE TO MARITAL VIOLENCE. (UN 2019)36

4/5

4 OUT OF
5 WOMEN
DON’T REPORTHARASSMENT TO
THEIR EMPLOYER.
(TUC 2016)37

7

THE EFFECTS

60%

75%

THE NUMBER OFWOMEN IN ONE US
STUDY WHO QUITTHEIR JOB OR HAD
IT TERMINATED AS A
RESULT OF DOMESTICABUSE. (IWPR 2017)38

IN THE EU 75%
OF TOP FEMALE
MANAGERS AND 74%
OF PROFESSIONALWOMEN REPORTEDEXPERIENCINGSEXUAL HARASSMENT.
(IFC 2016)77%

THE IMPACTS:
PHYSICAL INJURYMENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMSLOW PERFORMANCEABSENTEEISM
DRUGS AND ALCOHOL ABUSE (UN 2019)40$75,000US to$150US million
THE COSTS EMPLOYERS CAN LOSE
DEFENDING AN EMPLOYMENTDISCRIMINATION CASE.41 according toWorkforce Magazine

77% OF WOMENIN SOUTH AFRICAREPORTEDEXPERIENCINGSOME FORM OF
WORKPLACE SEXUALHARASSMENT.
(IFC 2016)39

202

YEARS

ACCORDING TO THE
WORLD ECONOMIC
FORUM, THE GLOBALGENDER PAY GAPWILL TAKE 108
YEARS TO CLOSE.
(WEF 2019).

8

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

What is Gender Based
Violence (GBV)?
GBV is violence directed against a person because of their gender. Both
women and men experience GBV but the majority of victims are women andgirls. The two types of GBV addressed in this report are sexual harassment
and domestic violence. Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual
nature which makes a person feel offended, humiliated and/or intimidated(ILO). Domestic Violence refers to any behaviour within an intimate
relationshipor family relationship that causes physical, sexual or psychologicalharm, including physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse
and controlling behaviours (UN). For more detailed definitions and examples,
please see the appendix.

METHODOLOGYThis Toolkit was developed by BusinessFights Poverty, with support from the
Challenge supporters Anglo American,
CARE International UK, International
Finance Corporation and Primark. It
is the main result of the Challenge on‘What role can business play in tackling
GBV’ which ran for nine months fromFebruary 2019.
Desk-based research was enhanced
by workshops in London and Oxford,
as well as online discussions andan online survey. This drew on thecollective experience and insightsof nearly 150 representatives frombusiness, academia, NGOs andgovernment bodies. Over 25 interviews
were conducted with academics,
technical experts and implementers
including HR professionals (for a listof individuals consulted, please see
the Acknowledgements section).

Key insights generated during thiscollaborative research process wereused to develop a framework foraddressing GBV. This forms the basisof this guide. We are grateful forthe peer review of this Toolkit by Dr
Jane Pillinger, leading expert andauthor of the UN Women/ILO (2019)
Handbook on Addressing Violence andHarassment Against Women in theWorld of Work.
The intention is that this guidance andthe accompanying Business for Social
Responsibility (BSR) diagnostic tool will
provide companies with the necessary
tools to start taking action.

9

INTRODUCTION

V

iolence and harassment in the workplace, in intimate
relationships, and in wider society, affects peoples full andequal participation in employment. It particularly affects women,
depriving them of their human rights, negatively affecting
their health, wellbeing, safety, security and ultimately theiradvancement in the workplace.

the International Labour
Organisation (ILO)
overwhelmingly agreed a new
global treaty in the form ofa Violence and Harassment
Convention

Violence and harassment can be
economic, emotional, physical, or
sexual and can involve patterns ofcoercive control that deny women’s
independence and autonomy. Violenceand harassment have a negative
impact on businesses, costing millions
in terms of lost productivity, higher
levels of absenteeism and loss ofvaluable employees.
In addition to the human andeconomic impacts, global standards
are now in place. In June 2019, the ILO
overwhelmingly agreed a new global
treaty in the form of Violence andHarassment Convention (C190) andan accompanying Recommendation(R206). It puts new obligations on
governments and companies to preventand tackle violence and harassment for
all workers, including those in the mostvulnerable forms of employment.
This Toolkit is designed to help
companies navigate this complex newlandscape. It includes the BusinessFights Poverty Framework, whichsets out 5 key steps for companies,
enabling them to take a comprehensive
approach to tackling the problem. Eachstep is illustrated with case studies andhelpful tips.

1.

PREVENT

2.

COMMIT

3.

PROTECT

4.

COLLABORATE

5.

BE ACCOUNTABLE10TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

The framework shows ways in which
employers, managers and employees
can all play their part in creating
more diverse, inclusive and respectful
workplaces, strongly rooted in genderequality. It aims to provide a framework
for action for all companies, be theysmall, medium-sized enterprises ormultinationals. It is also designed to
be useful for those at the beginningof their journey and those alreadyinvesting significant effort towards
tackling GBV.
This Toolkit aims to promote businessengagement, activism and innovation increating workplaces that are free fromviolence and harassment. It looks at
two key dimensions of GBV that affectwomen’s full and equal participation in
the workplace: sexual harassment anddomestic violence.

This Toolkit aims to promotebusiness engagement,
activism and innovation increating workplaces thatare free from violence andharassment

For those companies ready to takea deeper look into how they areapproaching the issue, we haveincluded in the annex the BSR‘Diagnostic Tool’ which guides anorganisation every step of the way andcan be used internally by staff or withthe support of a partner organisation.

11

MAKING THE CASE
WHY SHOULD BUSINESSTACKLE GBV?
1. THE BUSINESS
CASE
Employees are often a business’s
greatest asset. Finding and retaining
the best talent, reducing the cost of
employee turnover, and enhancing
employee performance andproductivity are priorities across all
progressive businesses. However,violence and harassment at work or
at home has a significant impact on
all these areas, particularly for women
employees, across the value chain.
On the flip side, diverse, inclusive
and respectful workplaces produce
higher satisfaction levels, which
increase employee engagement andperformance and ultimately profits.

11daysIn Papua New Guinea
IFC estimated that
staff lose 11 workdays
per year to GBVWHY DOES GBV MATTER TOSENIOR LEADERSHIP AND
HUMAN RESOURCES?
The costs:
Higher rates of turnover andabsenteeism. In Papua New Guinea,
IFC and partners estimated that
staff lose 11 workdays per year
to GBV, including two days topresenteeism, five to absenteeism
and four to assisting other GBV
survivors. Staff time alone costcompanies between 3% and 9% of
payroll.7
Lower productivity andperformance. In the US women
who have suffered from domestic
violence work 10% fewer workdays
per year than women who have notbeen subject to such violence.8
Negative impact on workplace
relations, and stress related
illness. This includes a tendency
to ‘presenteeism’ when a worker isphysically present but not able toconcentrate leading to increased
chances of mistakes and accidents.9
In Europe stress contributes toaround half of all lost working days.10

12

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 201957%
57 per cent of enterprises
said it was easier to attract
and retain talent withinclusive gender policies.

THE BENEFITS OF
ADDRESSING VIOLENCE AND
HARASSMENT:
According to the 2019 ILO Women in
Business Report which surveyed 13,000
enterprises in 70 countries:11
Almost 57% said it was easier
to attract and retain talent withinclusive gender policies.
In the absence of violence andharassment, productivity of former
survivors and perpetrators, as well as
bystanders, improves.
Almost three-quarters of thosecompanies that tracked gender
diversity in their management
reported profit increases of between
5 and 20%, with the majority seeing
increases of between 10 and 15%.

WHY DOES GBV MATTER TO
BRAND AND OPERATIONS?
Recent examples have illustrated
how negatively sexual harassment
claims can affect a company’s
brand and reputation. Afterthe Haiti scandal at Oxfam, apoll found that more than 60%
of people were less likely todonate to the organisation12. Uberscandals including allegations ofsexual harassment by senior staff
and drivers resulted in 56% ofrespondents refusing to use theirservices.13. In 2015 the World Bank
cancelled $265m of funding for
the Kamwenge-Fort Portal road inwestern Uganda, amid allegationsof sexual abuse and misconduct
by construction workers on the
project. Research has shown thatwhen people learn that a sexual
harassment claim has been madein an organisation, they see it asless equitable than an organisation
where a claim of a different
transgression, such as financial
misconduct, was made14.
As OurWatch Australia have noted‘Working to change the social andstructural conditions that drive
violence can be good for business,building trust and loyalty, andenhancing reputation by showing
leadership on issues the community
cares about’.15 For example, in 2018
Carling Black Label responded to
the fact that 3 women in South
Africa are killed every day bypartners. As the largest beer brandin the country, it saw an opportunity
to raise awareness among thebrand’s largely male consumer baseto encourage behaviour change,
and ultimately help put an end toviolence against women. The brandcreated a campaign aimed at men

13saying that there is ‘no excuse’ forgender violence, which involved
high profile activations and apowerful on-the-ground programme
promoting positive masculinity.
The campaign is a long-term
commitment for the brand and todate has increased positive brandsentiment by 86% and reached 45
million people through social media
and traditional advertising.16

In the absence of violenceand harassment, productivityof former victims andperpetrators, as well as
bystanders, improves.

According to the ILO Women in
Business Study, gender inclusive
policies resulted in more than
54% of respondents reporting
improvements in creativity,
innovation and openness and asimilar proportion said effective
gender inclusivity enhanced theircompany’s reputation. 37% felt it
enabled them to gauge customer
sentiment more effectively.

WHY DOES GBV MATTER TOLEGAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS
STAFF?
All employers have a duty of care toensure the wellbeing of employees
and a legal responsibility to provide
a safe and healthy work environment.
Preventing violence and harassment
is a key part of this. Meeting theseobligations helps to create a positiveand inclusive working environment andminimizes the risk of reputational loss
from costly lawsuits17.
Occupational Health and Safety.
In many countries, laws oblige
employers to take reasonableprecautions to maintain a safe andhealthy workplace for all employees.
As the ILO Violence and Harassment
Convention sets out, this should
encompass both psychological andphysical safety.
Compliance. Companies areencouraged to adopt human rights
due diligence frameworks that
integrate gender equality and GBV,
as outlined in a recent report of the
Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights (OHCHR). Investor
performance standards are also
now being widely used by all
private sector focused Development
Financing Institutions requiring
compliance with a variety of socialand environmental standards. The
IFC has strengthened references
to tackling GBV in their standards.
To minimise risks, where standards
are not in place companies canmake reference to key international
human rights standards and ILO
Conventions even if they havenot been adopted in the relevant
countries.

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TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

A new global standard. Until
June 2019 more than one thirdof countries had no laws against
violence and harassment at work.18
However, the ILO Violence andHarassment Convention creates aclear global benchmark. Ratifying
governments will commit toadopting an inclusive, integrated
and gender-responsive approachfor the elimination of violence andharassment including:+ Prohibiting in law all forms ofviolence and harassment;+ Ensuring relevant policies
to address violence andharassment;+ Adopting a comprehensive
strategy to implement measures
to prevent and combat;+ Establishing or strengthening
enforcement and monitoringmechanisms;+ Ensuring access to remedies andsupport for survivors; providing
for sanctions;+ Developing tools, guidance,
education and training, andraising awareness;+ Ensuring effective means ofinspection and investigation ofcases.

$75k $150m
the costs employers can lose
defending An employment
discrimination case.42
according to Workforce
Magazine

WHY DOES THIS MATTER TOFINANCE AND CORPORATE
GOVERNANCE?
Legal obligations create legal– and financial – liability if theemployer fails to address workplacesexual harassment at all, or does soinadequately. In many countries there
are legal, reputational and financial
costs for companies that do notprevent sexual harassment. In the USA,for example, the costs to companies forsettling claims of sexual harassment has
been high – prevention makes a lot of
financial sense.
21st Century Fox paid $45m inthe first quarter of 2017 to settle
allegations of sexual harassment. In
the same year, it received a $90m
insurance payment for investor
claims arising from the sexual
harassment scandal at Fox News.19
In the US, according to Workforce
Magazine, employers can expect
to lose between $75,000 and$125,000 defending a case throughdiscovery and a ruling on a motion
for summary judgment. (Assuming
the employer wins; otherwise, thetotal typically ranges from $175,000
to $250,000—but may even surpass$150 million).

15

THE BUSINESS CASE
SOLTUNA,SOLOMON ISLANDS:

SolTuna, an IFC investment client, is atuna processing plant in the north westof the Solomon Islands, employing
2,100 of the country’s 540,000
residents. In order to uncover andaddress the drivers of high absenteeism(32% on a daily basis) and to explore
what they could do to attract, retain,and engage women workers, SolTuna
conducted an extensive genderdiagnostic with the International
Finance Corporation (IFC) in 2015. They
found that 10% of absences were due
to “family problems”. Workers reported
that these family problems included
physical violence, threats, and otherforms of domestic violence. Thesefindings are supported by statistics
which show that almost half (42%) ofincome-earning women experience
GBV in the Solomon Islands. After
implementing a comprehensive gender
programme (including actions targeting
financial literacy) They launched a
Respectful Workplace Programme
to address bullying and harassment
and support employees affected bydomestic violence SolTuna reduced
controllable absenteeism (i.e. notincluding holiday and other forms offormal leave) from 16% to 12% (a 25%
decrease) from 2015 to 2016.

IFC estimates that by reducing
controllable absenteeism from 18% to15%, the company stood to achieve thefollowing earnings/savings:+ $1,580,000 in additional
productivity;+ $45,000 in savings due to notneeding to overstaff shifts;+ $121,000 in savings due to reduced
overtime.
Adapted from ICRW Gender Smart Agriculture case study https://www.icrw.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/SolTuna2.pdf
Original IFC report on THE IMPACT OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ON
BUSINESSES in the Solomon islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea
can be found in the additional resources section of this report.

16

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

THE BUSINESS FIGHTS
POVERTY 5 STEPFRAMEWORK TOTACKLE GBV IN THE
WORLD OF WORK

1. PREVENT
How do we know if wehave an issue with violenceand harassment across ourorganisation?

STEPS TO TAKE

WHO

CASE STUDY

Prevent violenceand harassment
from occurring
by addressing
potential risks

HR, Compliance,

Anglo

Sustainability, Risk

AmericanCommittees, HealthKeringand Safety Committees,
Community Affairs Staff,
Employees and their
Organisations

2. COMMIT
How do we convince
employees we are taking
GBV seriously and build trust
across our organisation?

Commit to genderequality anddiversity across theworkplace

CEO, Board,

Vodafone

Directors, Managers

CARE

Protect employeeswith supportive
policies andprocedures

HR, Employees andUnilever3. PROTECTHow do we protect ouremployees if they experience
violence or harassment atwork or at home? Will we
make it worse?

their Organisations,Staff Committees,
CEO, Board, OHS,
Security

17

Our framework aims toshow that all staff cantake actions towards
creating more diverse andsupportive workplaces.

STEPS TO TAKE

WHO

CASE STUDY

Collaborate acrosssectors and with
suppliers andcampaign beyond
the immediate
workplace

Regional managers,

DiageoGovernment

Avon

Be accountable andmonitor action

HR, CEO, Legal, Board

4. COLLABORATE
How do we influence
the wider value chain toprotect employees? Can
a company help change
wider social norms that
employees inhabit in theircommunities?

Agencies, Suppliers,
Marketing, NGOs,
Employees and their
Organisations

5. BE
ACCOUNTABLE
How do we know if ouremployees are benefittingfrom any of the actions weare taking? What do wehave to do to comply withlegal changes?

Diageoand CARE

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TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

STEP 1PREVENTQUESTION 1
HOW DO WE
KNOW IFWE HAVE AN ISSUE
WITH VIOLENCE IN
OUR WORKPLACE?
‘We know that those mostat risk in our supply chain
are homeworkers, temporary
workers and migrant
workers’ TFG brands.

L

ow or no reporting of
sexual harassment andGBV in any sector does notmean it is not happening.
Every workplace has
issues with violence andharassment. And domestic
violence cases are
massively underreported
due to the fears of
retaliation and a belief that
nothing will change.
GBV happens in all sectors andoccupations. However, women are mostaffected by violence and harassment
when they work at the bottom of the
global supply chain. For example, ingarment factories or agriculture, in
low-paid and low-skilled positions, insectors that employ large numbersof women and/or jobs where womencome into contact with the public, forexample in health care, transportationand hospitality.

19

WHO SHOULD BE
INVOLVED?

HR, Compliance, Sustainability,
Risk Committees, Health and
Safety Committees, Community
Affairs Staff, Employees and their
Organisations

TOP TIPS
Establish a working group to decide
how your business wants to tackle
the issue in your own context.
Ensure it is made up of seniorstaff and employees to build trust.
Develop a staff survey to create abaseline of staff knowledge, trust,and experiences of the issues. See
IFC Toolkit20 terms of reference for
conducting a baseline study.
Consider working with a partner tomap vulnerabilities across the value
chain (e.g. using the BSR Diagnostic
in this report), and where possible
conduct it with other companies/
sectors to get a fuller picture andavoid duplication.
Integrate violence and harassment
prevention into existing risk
management systems and processes
and in joint employer-union healthand safety committees. Make efforts
to ensure that women are equally
represented in health and safetycommittees. Ensure that psychosocial
violence and harassment is included
in risk assessments. These should
consider how work practices such as
overload and adverse conditions, orpurchasing practices with suppliers
may affect people.

Integrate violence and harassment into
existing human rights due diligenceand impact assessments if they are notalready there to help identify potential
vulnerabilities and track them over time.
Identify where you engage withthose most exposed to risk, e.g.
interns, homeworkers, informal
workers, and migrants, and consider
how you might reach out to them.
For example, this could be doneby creating gender forums orcommittees, and by representative
participation in leadership positions in
the workplace.21
Ensure all staff are familiar with
the Recognise, Respond andRefer framework for supporting
employees at risk of domestic
violence.22 Recognise equates tothe ‘Prevent’ step in this framework.
This includes recognising changes
in individual behaviour, attendance,
performance and physical changes
including bruises. LGBT+ employees
experiencing abuse may be reluctant
to speak/seek help, especially if they
are not ‘out’ at work.

The RECOGNISE,RESPOND and
REFER model 22

Recognise
By recognising the problem – particularly at an early stage – managers andemployees can help ‘break the silence’
about domestic violence and abuse in theworkplace and encourage employees todisclose and discuss the problem. Thismeans that everyone in the organisation
knows and understands that domestic
violence and abuse is a workplace issue.

RespondCompanies ensure that policies andprocedures provide a supportive
workplace that can respond appropriately
and empathetically when an employee
discloses domestic violence and abuse.

Refer
Managers signpost employees to internal
confidential services and information about
support from specialist domestic violence
support organisations, counselling services
and other tools such as Vodafone Foundation Bright Sky app (where available) inorder to report concern.

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TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

CASE STUDYANGLO AMERICAN
SOUTH AFRICA:
CREATING A BASELINETO UNDERSTAND GBV

Anglo American, headquartered in the UK,
is a globally diversified mining businesswith managed operations in Africa, North
America, South America and Australia, as
well as exploration, sales and other businessactivities and joint ventures across theglobe.
For a host of reasons, mining is not an
industry that has historically been attractive
to women. Anglo American believes
that change will take time and has madeprogress on increasing the numbers of
women employed at its operations. Until
1996 women were legislatively prohibitedfrom being employed in underground
operations in South Africa, but now makeup 20% of Anglo American’s workforce and
28% of managers.
However, Anglo American needed a morestrategic and purposeful approach to makemining an attractive career for women andin 2017 designed an Inclusion and Diversity
strategy. Anglo American recognised thecrisis in harassment and gender-based
violence at a national level in South Africa
and set out to understand the potential
dynamics around these at its operations

Anglo American’s efforts
to ensure the safety ofwomen at work had started
many years back withimprovements to change
houses and personal
protective equipment

and in host communities. The ‘Living with
Dignity’ programme emphasises that
employees can only truly feel valued andincluded at work when they are treated with
dignity and respect.
Anglo American’s efforts to ensure thesafety of women at work had started many
years back with improvements to change

21

These stereotypes
present barriers towomen participating
meaningfully in all
aspects of mining
and can normalize
unacceptablebehaviour.

They decided to partner with the NGO
International Alert to undertake acomprehensive series of baseline studies atmining operations to help understand theexperience of women and vulnerable groups
at work and in their communities as it relates
to violence and harassment. The studies also
aim to help Anglo American identify where
it can take further steps to end violenceagainst women in cases where existingmeasures may have been inadequate.
houses and personal protective equipment;
and working with operations to improve theeffectiveness of site-level women in mining
committees and mechanisms for reportingharassment.
The reporting mechanisms (hotlines)
revealed isolated incidences of violenceand harassment but suggested there wasno large-scale problem. However Anglo
American felt that it was increasingly
difficult to imagine that an issue that is soprevalent across the country and in mining
communities, was stopping at the mine gate.

While this work is in its very earlystages, initial indications are that highly
dichotomised gender stereotypes prevail
in many parts of the business. These
stereotypes present barriers to womenparticipating meaningfully in all aspects ofmining and can normalize unacceptablebehaviour. While the results are still
being collected and analysed, they havealready exposed several ways in which thecompany can improve its approach and theexperience of women in mining.

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TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

CASE STUDYKERING FOUNDATION:
CREATING A CULTURE
OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
PREVENTION ACROSS
THE LUXURY GROUP’S
BRANDS.

Recognising that one third of womenexperience violence in their lifetime andthat 80% of its customers and 60% of its
employees were female, the Kering Groupdecided to leverage its image and network
to address violence against women throughthe creation of the Kering Foundationin 2008. The Foundation supports local
survivor-centred organisations that provide
comprehensive services to women, and works
with younger generations, particularly young
men and boys, to combat violence against
women through prevention programmes.
In addition, the Foundation seeks to change
behaviours within Kering and in society ingeneral. It offers training sessions to raiseawareness on domestic violence for Kering
employees and created, in 2018, alongside the
FACE Foundation, “One in Three Women”,
the first European network of companies
engaged against GBV.

In order to provide a supportive andsafe work environment for employees
experiencing domestic violence, in 2011, theKering Foundation created an innovativeinternal training programme co-designed, in
partnership with the French NGO Fédération
Nationale Solidarité Femmes (FNSF). Since
then, the 3-hour introductory curriculum
has been rolled out in Italy, the UK, theUS, and now China, always partneringwith local NGOs to adapt the content to
the local context. The session covers thefollowing: understanding the complex issueof domestic violence and breaking down
stereotypes, the cycle of violence thatvictims experience, and how the company
can support colleagues who are victims.

23

The interest from staff prompted them tocreate a level 2, full-day course to become‘Internal Advocates’, which goes further toaddress how to concretely support victims
internally and refer them to specialised
partner organisations. The Foundation
has now created a network of the Internal
Advocates, making their email addresses
and phone numbers available across internal
communication tools. These level 2 trainings
are being rolled out across other countries.
The trainings have also been adapted for the
Executive Committee of all the brands under
the Kering group and the Foundation works
closely with the heads of all the brands andtheir HR teams to roll out further trainings.
They endeavour to find Internal Advocatesacross the brands.

The Foundation supports
local survivor-centredorganisations thatprovide comprehensive
services to women andworks with younger
generations, particularly
young men and boys,
to combat violenceagainst women throughprevention programmes.

After each training session and workshop,
participants receive a feedback survey andquestionnaire. The Foundation speaks toparticipants 6 months after the training tosee if they retained the key messages andhave spoken about the subject to peopleinternally and externally. However, forreasons of confidentiality, Kering does nottrack or record the number of incidencesof women who have suffered from violencedisclosed internally.

24

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

STEP 2

COMMITQUESTION 2
HOW DO WECONVINCE
EMPLOYEES WE
ARE TAKING GBVSERIOUSLY AND
BUILD TRUSTACROSS OURORGANISATION?
However big or small you
are it starts with inclusivity’…
(Business In The Community
2018)

C

ompanies that haveactively sought to tackle
GBV have built significant
levels of trust amongst
employees throughsustained commitment
to gender equality andinclusive workplaces.

Given that GBV is a cause andconsequence of gender inequality,
prioritising gender equality will ultimately
help prevent violence and harassment
at work. CEO and Senior Leadershipcommitments to diverse, equal andrespectful workplaces are the foundation
for tackling GBV.23 These commitments
must be backed by adequate resources
and action.

TOP TIPS
Build leadership commitment togender equality. Consider creating across-functional team to assess thecurrent culture and to present whatcompetitors are doing to promote
gender equality and the effects on
culture, retention and profits.

25

WHO SHOULD BE
INVOLVED?

CEO, Board, Directors, Managers

Make internal and external
commitments to addressing GBV,
both violence and harassment
at work and domestic violence.
Consider supporting corporate
networks including OneInThree
network or the White Ribbon
campaign.
●Invest resources in commitments
to gender equality and recognisethat it is a continuous journey (e.g.
Vodafone and Diageo have made 10year commitments to making theirworkplaces ‘the best places to work
as a woman’).
● Offer equitable employment andentrepreneurship policies, e.g. parental
leave to all employees, equal pay forwork of equal value, flexible hours.
●Increase the number of women
represented on Boards and at
Senior Management levels acrossthe business by addressing any
recruitment bias and policies.
● Provide gender equality training for
managers and employees, which
includes a focus on preventing andaddressing the consequences of GBV
in the workplace, and ensure that all
relevant stakeholders have accessto the training, such as suppliers,
vendors, contractors and business
partners. Train men in the workplace
as allies and champions to end GBV.

●Integrate gender equality into yourcore business, e.g. new products
and services designed for women, or
consider tackling gender stereotypes
and broadening definitions ofmasculinity through communications
and marketing.
● Get EDGE certified (Economic
Dividends for Gender Equality)
and assess employment practices
regularly. EDGE is the leading global
assessment methodology andbusiness certification standard forgender equality.24●Ensure all policies and practices thatmight impact on gender equality arealigned internally, e.g. end the use of
Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)
for sexual harassment cases at work
to signal the seriousness with which
the issue is taken and that someone
in a powerful position cannot ‘getaway with it’.
●Employers should consider how an
employee’s gender, race, religion,
class, ability, sexual orientation
and/or gender identity affect theirvulnerability to and experienceof violence and harassment.
Intersectionality is becoming abetter-known term — it refers to theoverlapping identities we have, andhow they can become multiple layersof disadvantage.

26

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

CASE STUDYVODAFONE:ORGANISATION-WIDECOMMITMENT TO
GENDER EQUALITYLEADS TO INNOVATIVENEW POLICIES 10
DAYS ‘SAFE LEAVE’FOR COLLEAGUESEXPERIENCINGDOMESTIC VIOLENCE
AND ABUSE

Vodafone Group Plc is one of the world’s
leading telecommunications groups, with asignificant presence in Europe, the Middle
East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Vodafone Group
research in partnership with Opinium in 2019
revealed that one in three working adults(37%) had experienced domestic abuse insome form, which had significantly impacted
their career. Vodafone responded byagreeing a policy of 10 days paid ‘safe leave’across its 26 markets for any staff member
experiencing domestic violence and abuse.
The policy also makes provision for HR andline manager training to identify and assist
those experiencing abuse. Several factors led
the company to take such action (ahead ofmany governments legislating on the issue).

Longstanding organisational
commitment to gender equality, building
on a vision to make Vodafone the ‘theworld’s best employer for women by2025’. This vision had already led tothe establishment of a global maternity
policy with a minimum of 16 weeks leave,
regardless of the market (2015), and their
ReConnect programme to recruit 1,000
people back to work following career
breaks (2017). The design of the global
domestic violence and abuse policy wasbuilt on experiences in two markets:
Australia (2015) and New Zealand (2017)
where policies existed already.
●Strong alignment of Commercial,
Foundation and HR functions on
the issue of gender equality andwomen’s empowerment. The Vodafone
Foundation has over 10 years’ experiencebuilding technology to support thoseexperiencing abuse. In 2009 it launched
TecSoS, a specially adapted piece oftechnology that enables enhanced
access to the police in an emergency
for those experiencing domestic abuse.
This has helped more than 100,000
high-risk victims of domestic violencein five countries to date. Easy Rescue
which has supported over 300,000
women in Turkey, and GBV hotlines inSouth Africa and Kenya have connected
over 300,000 women to help duringcrisis. In 2018, The Vodafone Foundation
launched Bright Sky in partnership with
Hestia, a leading domestic abuse charity.
This is an app that provides a UK-wide
directory of specialist domestic abuse
support services. It enables users tolocate their nearest support centre bysearching their area, postcode or current
location. It has been downloaded morethan 10,000 times and is now beingrolled out in other countries.

27“Vodafone research inpartnership with Opinium
revealed that one inthree working adults
experienced domestic
violence which hadsignificantly impacted
their career.”● Gender as a shared value business
opportunity. As well as these Foundation
programmes, Vodafone is committed
to connecting an additional 50 million
women to help to close the mobile gendergap (women in low and middle income
countries are 10% less likely to own amobile than men). Products and services
have been specifically designed to help
women overcome social and economic
barriers stopping them reaching theirpotential. Safety is one such barrier, andmillions of customers in India are currently
benefitting from Sakhi - a mobile service
that features location alerts, emergency
balance and private number recharge - toenable female customers to keep theirphone numbers confidential when toppingup credit in shops.

●Committed leadership. Diversity is a key
focus at the top of the company, andtargets to get 40% women representationin leadership positions have helped tocreate a culture of inclusivity.
It is early days for the domestic violence andabuse policy, and the overall social value
will take a while to be seen. Early indicatorsshow a real need. The policy is implemented
through a replicable train - where thetrainer’s network is supported by a Toolkit25
designed by leading expert Dr Jane Pillinger.
This is available for all organisations to use –with the hope that many others will benefit.

28

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

CASE STUDY
THE STOP PROGRAMMEDEVELOPING MODELWORKPLACE POLICIES IN
THE SE ASIAN GARMENTSECTORThe 6-12 month accompaniment
package consists of:+ TOOLS: Workplace policy implementation
guide, reporting mechanisms, complaint
response processes and tools+ SKILLS: Training for management staff,
development of sexual harassment
committees, ongoing coaching to ensure
effective policy implementation+ UNDERSTANDING: Targeted worker
training package and communications toshift social norms, including: video drama
series, visual aids for interactive sessions,training manuals with discussion guides

Forty million women work in the garment
sector across Asia, 75% of whom are
women. CARE research found that 1 in 3
garment workers in the region experienced
violence and harassment. CARE’s research
has found that in Cambodia alone theproductivity cost to the garment sector was
estimated at $89m per annum.
In response to this challenge, and with
$5.6m funding from the Australian
government over 4 years, CARE hasdeveloped a holistic workplace package
targeted at factory management,
management systems, workers andworkplace norms. The programme is being
implemented in 20 factories in Cambodia
and 20 factories across Laos, Myanmar andVietnam and is a key part of CARE’s MadeBy Women regional strategy.

24%
A 24% reduction inperceived risk of sexual
harassment among
women workers.

Reported impacts from the firstphase include:+ A 24% reduction in perceived risk of sexual
harassment among women workers.
+ Increase in understanding of what
behaviours were not acceptable at work.
+ Reported reduction in sexually inappropriate
verbal teasing by male co-workers.
+ Increase in women’s confidence to reportissues to management.
+ Managers reported reductions in staff turnover.
+ Safer factories perceived as a moredesirable place to work.
●+ Managers reported reduction in conflicton the factory floor.

29

KEY INSIGHTS:
Zero tolerance policies on GBVamong buyers are making it difficult
for factory managers and owners toadmit that GBV happens or to reportcases. The risk of losing orders means
zero tolerance policies encourage
suppliers to hide cases and not reporton them. Brands need to revise theirpolicies to promote transparency andthe creation of effective prevention
and response management systems
among their suppliers, rather thanpenalising reporting.
Industry, government and union
stakeholders in each country gave
extensive input to the development of
CARE’s sexual harassment prevention
mechanisms thereby building criticalbuy in.
The Garment Manufacturers Associationof Cambodia (GMAC) has supported
the programme and it is hoped they will
promote the ‘model workplace policy’
across the sector.
A regulation in Cambodia stipulates
that in order to earn a license to export,
factories must undertake an annual audit
with the Better Factories Cambodia
programme of the ILO.
CARE has supported the ILO/IFC
Better Factories Cambodia Programme
in Cambodia with training for audit
assessors on how to help strengthen theidentification of sexual harassment duringassessments.
The role of leaders, including factoryowners and managers, is critical tosuccess. Without them policies andprocedures tend to be left only forhuman resources departments toaddress, especially in hierarchicalstructures and cultures.

The programme has prioritised using
culturally relevant communication withworkers rather than technical trainings.
The dramas encourage staff debate andnorms change within the factory on theissues are
Drawing on evidence of what works tochange social norms, the dramas are
filmed with individuals representing
factory workers themselves.
CARE worked with governments andunions in the region to build support
for consistent legal standards including
the new ILO Violence and Harassment
Convention 190 on eliminating violenceand harassment in the world of work.
In future, CARE is hoping to expand the model
developed in the Mekong to other countries
with garment industries. In addition, there ispotential to turn the programme into a fee forservice model for brand and factories.
The broader challenge remains making thecase to industry that the costs of sexual
harassment can be reduced through holistic
responses such as that in this programme.

30

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

STEP 3

PROTECTQUESTION 3
HOW DO WE
PROTECTOUR EMPLOYEES IF
THEY EXPERIENCE
VIOLENCE OR
HARASSMENT AT
WORK OR AT HOME?
WILL WE MAKE IT
WORSE?

Major concerns expressed by managers
include ‘I’m not an expert’ or ‘I mightmake things worse’ when it comes todealing with a harassment case or acolleague that they suspect might beexperiencing violence at home.

TOP TIPS
A good workplace policy
should include:26 statements ofcommitment, a programme ofactivities to prevent violence andharassment, clarity about the roles
and responsibilities of the workers
and employer, contain informationon complaint and investigation
procedures including a commitment
to act on any information regarding
violence and harassment, andprotect claimants and whistleblowers against victimisation.27
Employees, and where possible
unions or staff representatives,
should participate in the design,
implementation and monitoring of thepolicy. See the Australian organisation‘OurWatch’s self-assessment tool for
creating a policy’.28 If the organisation
is non-unionised, this can still be carriedout through informal social dialogue
between managers and workers.

However, having clear policies andprocedures in place can empower
everyone in the workplace to takeappropriate action.

Ensure that suppliers andcontractors are aware of relevant
policies and practices.

Similarly, survivors, bystanders andwhistle-blowers need security that theircases will be handled effectively.

Be transparent about the policy
and record numbers of incidents
disaggregated by gender andmonitoring in annual reports.

31

WHO SHOULD BE
INVOLVED?
HR, Employees and their
Organisations, Staff Committees,
CEO, Board. OHS, Security

Reporting and complaints
procedures
Create confidential spaces for
employees to have access to
information and support, to raise
concerns, and make complaints– these could be through formal
joint employer-union complaints
committees, or via internallytrained confidential workplaceadvocates, occupational health or
Employee Assistance Programmes(EAP). Always provide a variety ofoptions to enable confidential andanonymous support. It is possiblethat the company doctor may be
a man, or the workplace advocate
might be a colleague.
Enable employees and bystanders
to make anonymous complaints
or reports and facilitate reporting
through multiple channels such as
by telephone hotline, email, text or
through an online system.
Where possible, ensure anonymity
and protection from retaliation andensure cases are recorded, acted
upon and monitored.

Managers need to be supported
to provide practical advice, e.g.
signposting/information, and options
for paid or unpaid leave, flexible
working hours and safety planning.
They also need to know whento refer on. Use the ‘Recognise,
Respond and Refer’ framework29 intrainings and publicise it throughout
the workplace.
Think creatively about how to workwith occupational health teams,
e.g. medical staff both as trusted
confidantes and trained experts insupporting survivors.
Protect workers by providing them withinformation and referrals to specialist
GBV services, such as crisis centres,
safe accommodation and specialist
legal support.

Grievance mechanisms
Treat all complaints seriously andrecruit an independent investigatorfrom outside the company if
resources allow.
Make clear the accountability
measures for perpetrators.
These processes should be clear,documented and known.
Disciplinary action should be
proportional to the severity of theviolence and/or harassment andbe implemented in a consistentway, helping to foster trust andconfidence in the reporting process.
In serious cases and depending on
the provisions of the criminal andcivil law code, a case may need
to be reported to the police withthe survivor’s consent in order totake appropriate criminal or civil
law action. It is also important that
support be given to help survivors in
the justice process30.

32

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

CASE STUDY UNILEVER:
DEVELOPING
AN EFFECTIVECOMPLAINTSPROCEDURE ON TEAPLANTATIONSFound from website recreated PMS

In 2013, Unilever Tea Kenya undertook an
independent review on how to prevent thekind of sexual and gender based violence
that was still distressingly prevalent acrossthe sector. This review came up with aseries of recommendations including a
multisectoral approach to reporting andsupporting victims. Unilever’s vision is tohave zero incidents of sexual harassment
and violence on the plantations. After
training, awareness and employee
engagement, the number of cases being
reported began to increase with employees’
trust in the system growing.
Drawing on their experiences in Kenya,
Unilever then partnered with UN Womenin 2016 to develop a human rights-based
intervention programme across the tea
supply chain. This resulted in the 2018 Global
Women’s Safety Framework in Rural Spaces
which includes case studies, practical tools
and a comprehensive Theory of Change. An
accompanying Implementation Guidance
was published in May 2019 and these tools
are applicable across a range of agriculturalcommodity supply chains.

“Drawing on theirexperiences in Kericho,
Unilever partnered withUN in 2016 to develop
a human rights-based
intervention programme
across the tea supply
chain.”KEY FACTORSKey factors which led to an increase in trustand confidence to report incidences at theplantations included:
Leadership commitment to tackle the issue:
Leadership ensured that local policies wererevised, reinforced and communicated toall employees. Two female managers withexpertise in human rights and gender wererecruited with a view to strengthen theprevention of violence and sexual harassment
and to effectively manage grievances andensure that the remedial process was fair.

33

Multiple channels for reporting: Employees
were encouraged to report incidences ofharassment and violence through multiple
channels and levels, not just managers,
e.g. employees on the Business Integrity
Committees and plantation welfare officers.
A local reporting hotline was improved
ensuring it was free to use and available
in the Kiswahili language. It was heavily
promoted throughout the plantation.
Worker committees, sometimes called‘Dignity Enhancement Committees’ proved
an important place for people to learn about
the new policies and procedures, share
their own concerns and review progress ongrievances. They also monitor trends andsignpost employees to referral mechanisms
to ensure that survivors and their families
receive adequate clinical and psychosocial
support. This system allows the company
to become aware of endemic issues and isa good early warning system and feedback
mechanism.
Increasing women’s leadership and safe
spaces across the plantations: In Kericho,
for example, alongside improved lighting
across the plantations, safe places have been
set up for women to breastfeed their babies
and day-care centres established for children
under the age of three.

RESPONSE:
Given the increase in cases being reported,
Unilever reached out to UN Women in Kenya
to convene a stakeholder group of relevantorganisations and networks that could
effectively support the employees and thedesign of the response programme. This
included women’s rights organisations thatconnected women with essential services,such as psychosocial services as well as thepolice, hospitals and local government. It
continues to meet every two weeks.

In collaboration with police, the teamadopted the following approach;
1. Joint consultations: These were created
to ensure the police were fully aware of
the incidents of violence and harassment
and to align around the programme.
As part of the consultations, gaps andopportunities were identified and resulted
in a strengthened police response
mechanism.
2. Training and community engagement:
The police committed to hold community
engagement forums to create awarenesson the law and brief the community
on endemic crimes such as domestic
violence. The police focal points at
various stations were also trained on GBV
and case management with the aim ofenhancing the capacity to respond andhandle GBV cases.
3. Investigations support and case follow
up: Working closely with the police
has contributed to the building of trust
between the community and the police,
resulting in increased numbers of womenand girls reporting alleged GBV cases tothe police directly.
Although there is no space for complacency inefforts to eradicate sexual and gender based
violence, the development of robust reportingand support systems within an integrated
approach does mean companies like Unilever
Tea Kenya now have the tools to tackle thesystemic issues behind the problems thatemerged on the estates in 2013.

34

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

STEP 4COLLABORATEQUESTION 4HOW DO WE
INFLUENCE
THE WIDER VALUECHAIN? AND CAN
THE ACTIONS OF ASINGLE COMPANYHELP CHANGE
WIDER SOCIALNORMS THATOUR EMPLOYEESINHABIT IN THEIRCOMMUNITIES?

Within their direct sphere of influence,companies have clear obligations toprotect their employees across the
supply chain. Sector-wide approaches(i.e. tackling GBV across the alcohol orgarment sector in a particular country)
can help raise standards with suppliers
and build a stronger overall ecosystem
to tackle deeply ingrained issues.

Some workplaces, for example, in
agriculture or mines, are unique
because they host employees andtheir dependents, so the responsibilityof the company inevitably extends
beyond the immediate workplace
to homes, suppliers and the wider
community. Research has showna correlation between oil, gas, andmining projects and rising rates of GBV,
including on-site sexual harassment, as
well as domestic violence and sexual
exploitation and abuse, within projectaffected communities. Women are often
more at risk to sexual violence due to an
influx of male transient workers.31
Beyond their direct sphere of
influence, companies also have theability to influence societal norms
and behaviours on GBV through thepower of advertising and campaigning.
Particularly when the issues are alignedwith their core business and include
culturally relevant reference points or
actors. Workplaces also offer uniquespaces to influence attitudes andbehaviours.

35

WHO SHOULD BE
INVOLVED?
Regional Managers, Government
Agencies, Suppliers, Marketing,NGOs, Employees and their
Organisations

TOP TIPS
A stakeholder analysis will help
to identify those individuals andorganisations that have an ‘interest’in working on GBV in and aroundthe workplace. For example, this
could include healthcare providers,
police, transport, local government,
and NGOs. Consider partneringwith local women’s organisations
and specialist domestic violence
organisations, if they exist.
Develop workplace policies andprogrammes in collaboration with
employees and other relevant
stakeholders. Ensure there aremechanisms in place to regularly
review and update them.
Create sector-wide networks toagree on joint principles and actions
across supply chains and facilitate
peer-to-peer learning. For example,
in Kenya, IDH the Sustainable Trade
Initiative convened the Gender
Empowerment Platform (GEP) in
2016 to develop solutions to GBVrelated issues. The network includes
Unilever Tea Kenya (UTK), James
Finlay (Kenya), Sotik Tea Company,
Eastern Produce Kenya, and the
Kenyan Tea Development Agency,
as well as NGOs.
Consider implementing social
dialogue between employers andunions at different levels which canplay an important role in ensuringthat women workers are effectively
represented. Global Framework
Agreements (between global unions
and MNEs) can be drawn up to covera company’s operations in several
countries across their supply chains.
Across a specific sector multiemployer bargaining agreements canbe agreed and implemented.
Assess the opportunities fortackling GBV through community
engagement project design andprograms. Conduct a baseline using
tools included in the IFC Toolkit32 forthe oil, mining and gas sectors.
Include suppliers in trainings andshare your GBV policies with them.
Consider using procurement power
to compel changes in behaviour ifnecessary.
Work with investors and donors toencourage them to request GBV as
a risk criteria in their environmental
and social performance standards.

CAMPAIGNSTOP TIPS:
Integrate GBV and gender equality
into your core business – developing
relevant new products or services,for example, Vodafone developed
Bright Sky app to help survivors ofdomestic violence report abuse.
Develop locally relevant advertisingand marketing campaigns and joinalliances that have been established
to counter gender stereotypes, e.g.
the Unstereotype Alliance.
Engage employees and sales
networks to campaign and fundraisefor GBV services.

36

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

CASE STUDYDIAGEO & CARE:
ENHANCING THE SAFETY
OF BEER PROMOTERS IN
CAMBODIA AND ACROSS
THE VALUE CHAIN

The global alcohol industry engages Beer
Promoters, Brand Ambassadors, Bar Teams,
Hosts and Activation Specialists, whose
primary role is to promote brands, provide
samples, and serve or sell drinks. They may
work in either the on-trade or off-trade, orat events. They may be directly employed
by a brand, or indirectly through third-party
suppliers or business partners. They may
be engaged via permanent contracts, fixedterm contracts or one-off agreements.
Diageo recognised that Cambodia wasa high-risk market where women beerpromoters were particularly at risk ofviolence and harassment by customers.
Their response to this high risk turned into
one of their most successful interventions.
Diageo partnered with CARE and took aholistic approach to tackle the issue. Using
CARE’s gender transformative framework
which looks at individual skills, community
relationships and policy environments thatprevent gender equality, they:“Diageo recognisedthat Cambodia wasa high-risk market
where young womenbeer promoters wereparticularly at risk ofviolence and harassment
by customers.”

37

The CARE/Diageo partnership helped
establish Beer Selling Industries Cambodia(BISC) – an industry association for major
breweries operating in Cambodia including
Asia Pacific Breweries, Cambodia Brewery
Ltd, Cambrew Ltd, Carlsberg A/S, Guinness
and Heineken International. As Diageo state:‘we recognise our responsibility to protect
the rights of our Brand Promoters. Diageo
is committed to the following principles inorder to achieve this, and we expect ourthird-party suppliers, business partners, aswell as the outlets that we partner with, tohold themselves to the same standard’.

1. Enhanced the agency of the beer sellers
themselves by helping to establish andsupport the Solidarity Association ofBeer Sellers Cambodia (SABC) to deliver
rights-based training, awareness of sexual
harassment and the protection andsupport available - to workers through apeer-to-peer model.
2. Looked at the power relations – andworked with outlet owners themselves tounderstand the challenges their workers
face, raise awareness among workers andcontribute to creating safe spaces.
3. Engaged with the structures orunderlying policies and worked with
the Ministry of Women’s Affairs tostrengthen the prevention of harassment
at work laws so that they included
entertainment workers.

The BISC code of conduct has aims to
improve the health, safety and working
conditions of beer promoters by setting
industry standards. All members agree toadhere to seven minimum standards relating
to the health, safety and working conditionsof the women promoting their beer
including for example, transport home to beprovided to workers after 10pm. These wererevised in 2018 to include information ongrievance mechanisms encouraging staff toreport any incidents via the Diageo SpeakUp
reporting line.
A snapshot of the impact in Phnom Penh
between 2017-18 showed that over 2000
women beer promoters had been trained on
sexual harassment prevention, 100 received
advance level training including on gender,
law and life skills - 20 of these were selected
to become peer leaders to train other female
workers, and 500 customers and workers
took part in activities to mark 16 Days of
Activism Against GBV.

38

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

CASE STUDY AVON:CAMPAIGNING
AND FUNDRAISINGACROSS ITS SALESNETWORK

Avon has 5 million independent
representatives across the world selling its
products, 95% of whom are women. Avon
was founded on the principle of making
the world a better place for women andis ‘committed to supporting the causesthat matter most to women – domestic
violence and breast cancer’. 15 years ago
the Avon Foundation for Women launched
the Avon Speak Out Against Domestic
Violence programme. Speak Out aimed tobring awareness to this issue, to educate,
and to develop and implement prevention
and direct service programmes. Since
2004, Avon (through product sales andsales of ‘Avon empowerment bracelets’)and the Avon Foundation for Women havecontributed more than $60 million USD
globally to support these goals and run
campaigns in the US, Latin America, Easternand Western Europe.
Avon have now reiterated their commitment
to this cause by launching the Avon Promise
to Help End Violence Against Women andGirls which aims to reach 100 million womeneach year through global campaigns, andfinancially supporting nationally relevant
support services.

The tone was set from the top. The CEOfrom the outset has been adamant about
how fighting GBV aligns with Avon’s core
purpose. GBV work is integrated acrossthe company. Programmes are led by
local corporate affairs leaders because
they are more in touch with the needs ofindividual countries and they can advise
on how to best communicate locally. The
marketing team decides what is produced
or adopted from existing product lines tosell to fundraise for the cause. The sales
team spreads the word among Avon’s 5
million representatives.
Working with local celebrities: Avon has
not invested in global celebrities due tothe cost and the difficulties of finding
globally relevant voices. Instead, it has
focused on producing short videos withlocal actors for their campaigns (forexample, they launched a campaign withfamous local male actors in Argentina
where men challenged each other on
their behaviour). In the UK in 2018 they
featured the story of an employee
who had experienced 18 months ofpsychological abuse, financial control andphysical abuse.
The company adapts its content, message
and campaigns to local specificities. In
some countries the company could be
more explicit in addressing GBV, whilein others, it had to be more implicit.
In Russia there is an extreme level of
discomfort in talking about these issues,
so the company had to address thisindirectly through bigger issues, such as
the role of women in society and in theworkplace, women’s empowerment andagency.

39“Avon was founded on theprinciple of making theworld a better place forwomen and is ‘committed
to supporting the causesthat matter most to women– domestic violence andbreast cancer’.”Avon has created and worked with a large
network of local NGOs for its countryspecific work and implementation. The
company recognises that it is not anexpert in the field of violence against
women. Each Avon country team will
select the most effective local NGO
partners to support financially e.g. in the
UK it funds Refuge and Women’s Aid.
The company has created an advisoryboard of experts. Avon created anadvisory network in its top 10 countries
with leading NGOs to bring up key
issues and needs. This also provides
them with a unique opportunity to learn
from each other and find synergies.
The brand also learns from this working
group. Avon schedules an annual virtual
meeting to connect the members of thegroup and it is currently exploring how
to keep this network active and fully
exploit its potential.

In terms of measurement it is difficult tomeasure the change produced by publiccampaigns on the subject. For example,
for the campaign ‘Embrace the Change’
campaign launched by Avon in 2018,
the company measured the number ofimpressions on social media and media (ittouched 100 million people globally), but it
is difficult to extrapolate how this changed
perceptions of people who saw it. On the
micro level the company has been able towitness individual cases where funding or
programmes have made a difference in the
lives of individual women. On a macro level
the company calculated that it educatedover 30 million people and that 10 million
people were provided with grassroot
services.

40 TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

STEP 5

BE ACCOUNTABLEQUESTION 5
HOW DOWE KNOWIF OUR EMPLOYEESARE BENEFITTINGFROM ANY OF THE
ACTIONS WE ARE
TAKING? WHAT DO
WE HAVE TO DO
TO COMPLY WITHLEGAL CHANGES?

M

any companies,
despite their goodintentions, often do not
publicly report on thenumber of complaints
they have received or theefficacy of their systems.

This needs to change in order to better
understand what is and isn’t working.
It is possible to report on cases
without affecting the confidentialityof individuals. At present a good
approach is to adopt the best practise
standards set out in the ILO Violenceand Harassment Convention as abenchmark. You can use this as abenchmark to monitor company
actions.

41

WHO SHOULD BE
INVOLVED?
HR, CEO, Legal, Board.

TOP TIPS
Monitor actions against theprovisions in the  ILO/IFC Violenceand Harassment Convention or
using the BSR Diagnostic tool in the
appendix of this report.
Assess employees uptake of any new
policies and programmes that havebeen put in place by conducting
regular employee surveys on GBV.
Share the summarised results
so people can see progress overtime. Invite staff to share views on
resource prioritisation to tackle theissue. Ensure feedback mechanisms
are in place for people to share ideas
on what is and isn’t working (seeUnilever case study and Step 3).
Check regulations in the country you
are working in – for example, somecountries have implemented legislationthat gives survivors of domestic
violence the right to paid leave (e.g.
New Zealand), while others put alegal duty on employers to reasonably
prevent violence and harassment (e.g.
Canada, Netherlands), or to establish
anti-sexual harassment complaints
committees in the workplace withrepresentatives from employers’ andworkers’ representatives (e.g. India), or
to carry out workplace negotiations on
gender equality (e.g. France). In some
export-oriented countries there may
be specific regulations, as is the casein Cambodia, where in order to gain an

export license factories must undertakean annual audit with ILO Better
Factories Cambodia programme.
Refer to local employers, trade unions
and trade associations to see if they
have developed relevant guidance on
implementing government regulations
on GBV, e.g. Confederation of British
Industry guidance on UK sexual
harassment legislation.
Report any actions taken to reduce
GBV and create more gender equal
workplaces in any company after
reporting33 against the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), especiallyfor SDG 5 on gender equality and SDG
8 on decent work and inclusive growthReport numbers of incidents
disaggregated by gender in annual
reports and track their progressover time.
Consider developing monitoring andevaluation processes in partnershipwith universities and experts who
demonstrate knowledge of GBV.
Advocate for creating or strengthening
national legislation where existing laws
do not meet international standards. For
example, consider supporting national
ratification campaigns for the  ILOViolence and Harassment Convention.

42

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

CASE STUDY:
WHAT IS THE ILOCONVENTION AND
HOW IT CAN WORKFOR BUSINESS?

Using the ILO Convention tostrengthen their response – CARE
and Diageo
In 2018 CARE and Diageo worked together
to develop a business diagnostic tool forthe prevention of sexual harassment andviolence at work.
CARE assessed what the draft ILO standards
would mean for business at large, and more
specifically, Diageo including:

The ILO Violence and Harassment
Convention was adopted on 21 June 2019.
The new instruments were adopted by an
overwhelming majority vote. 439 out of
476 voting delegates voted in favour of theConvention, and only 7 against; 6 of thosewere employer representatives. 30 delegates
opted to abstain from voting, including
representatives of the governments of 6
countries - El Salvador, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia,
Paraguay, Russia and Singapore.
The agreed wording of the Convention is
wide and inclusive in its scope, extending
protection to all kinds of workers in all
sectors: formal and informal, urban andrural; and it applies wherever people findthemselves in the course of doing their jobs,
including while they are commuting to andfrom work; as well as in online workspaces.
A convention becomes effective one year
after two ILO Member States have ratified it.

+ ensuring that relevant policies address
violence and harassment;+ adopting a comprehensive strategy inorder to implement measures to preventand combat violence and harassment;+ establishing and strengthening
enforcement and monitoring mechanisms;+ ensuring access to remedies and support
for victims;+ developing tools, guidance, educationand training, and raising awareness.

CARE then over-laid these standards with
its own best practice recommendations
through an in-depth desk analysis to createa framework of recommendations. Thisbenchmarking exercise highlighted thebright spots and opportunities to strengthen
Diageo’s protection and response policies.
Best practices, such as broad definitions ofharassment within supplier standards andcommunity programming initiatives focusedon the sales environment, were highlighted
and recommendations created for Diageo toreplicate and scale-up these initiatives at a
global scale.

43

There is now, for the firsttime ever, a global,
legally-binding treaty
dealing specificallywith keeping workers
everywhere safe fromviolence and harassment
at work.

Knowing that strong policies are justpart of the solution, the assumptions andrecommendations were validated with awealth of the Diageo global team, acrossmultiple low and high-risk countries andin business functions ranging from sales
to HR and sustainability. The result was astrengthening of the recommendations,an acknowledgement of the need torespond to diverse cultural contexts andsocial norms, and a series of actions forthe Diageo Executive Committee to rollout the emerging pockets of best practiceon a global scale. Diageo is now rollingout a strengthened global standard for theprotection of brand promoters and scaling
up specific Dignity at Work policies acrossits markets.
Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)
uses a similar approach in its diagnostic forcompanies, which is included as an annex tothis report.

44

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

ANNEX:THE WORKPLACEDIAGNOSTIC TOOL ON
VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT
The BSR Logo

ABOUT THE TOOLHOW TO USE THE TOOL

The BSR Workplace Diagnostic
Tool on Violence and Harassment
aims to help companies assess theirpolicies, systems and culture to
determine strengths and gaps in theircurrent approach to preventing andaddressing harassment and violence.

The scoring and findings from the Tool will
help businesses develop an action plan to
improve upon their approach to violenceand harassment. The Tool consists offour key business focus areas: (1) Policy,
Process and Program, (2) Strategy, (3)Leadership, and (4) Workplace Culture.
Under each focus area, there will be a
set of guiding questions for companies todevelop a score.

WHO SHOULD USE THE TOOLThe Tool is intended for the use of allcompanies of any industry and size. This
Tool is suitable for use by all business
operations (i.e. headquarters, business
units, subsidiaries, etc.) The Tool can beused by HR teams, Compliance teams,
senior management, committees, staff
unions, and other staff members who areinterested in understanding the strengths
and opportunities to their approach topreventing and addressing harassment andviolence in their workplaces.

This Tool could be integrated into existing
impact assessments, e.g. HRIAs, risk
analysis. It can be used as a standalone
tool or relevant indicators can be included
in other company tools. This Tool should
not be used for isolated efforts as itneeds to be a part of a broader strategy
to prevent and manage harassment andviolence in the workplace.
The Tool is intended to be interactive.
The users are encouraged to interview
employees and colleagues across different
departments and functions. Local offices or
subsidiaries can also use the Tool to assess
their own policies, systems, and culture.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD WE USE
THIS TOOL?

HOW WAS THE TOOLDEVELOPED ?

The tool should be used as part ofestablished risk assessment processes/
schedules. Regular assessments should beestablished with adequate time for follow
up and action plans, as harassment andviolence risks may change over time as
business operations and contexts change.

Through BSR’s experience supporting
companies to advance women, as wellas using the ILO standards and aligning
the Tool to the 107th International
Labour Conference, and to the OECD’s
Responsible Business Conduct (RBC)
guidelines.

The BSR “spark” logomark is a visual representof BSR’s role as a Catalyst for Progress. It is an
integral part of BSR’s identity. The spark is both
symbol of our organization and the central orga
element of every communication it appears on.

Don’t dilute the power of the spark by using it a
as a design element, in part or whole.

As you’ll see on the following pages, there aremany variations of the BSR logo. Contact theCommunications team for help finding the corre
one for your needs.

BSR Brand Guidel

45

ABOUT THE SCORING
Businesses are ranked across four levels:--

Beginner (1 point): Violence andharassment is important for compliancereasons. Initiatives on violence andharassment are related to meetingcompliance obligations, national
legislation, industry regulations, and toprevent the violation of basic humanrights. The responsibility to tackle
violence and harassment is on support
function teams.
Improver (2 points): Programmes andaction plans are in place to respond toviolence and harassment issues thatarise. The initiatives and programmesthat take place are on an ad hoc basis.
Even if policies exist, there isn’t abroader strategy around prevention ofviolence and harassment nor on tacklingroot causes, i.e. it’s reactive rather thanproactive. Violence and harassment
issues are not integrated into broader
human rights, sustainability, or gender
strategies.

-

Achiever (3 points): Prevention andredressal is internalised into systems andall business units. The business caseto deal with violence and harassment is
promoted by leaders internally. Thereis an action plan or strategy in place toaddress violence and harassment.

-

Leader (4 points): Gender equality
is a business norm. The commitment
to tackle violence and harassment isunderstood and held across all unitsof the business. The business is a rolemodel and uses its influence to affectchange among their peers and beyond.
The company proactively works toaddress the root causes of violenceagainst women, i.e. adverse socialand gender norms, power imbalances,
gender inequality, etc. in the workplaceand in the community.

A business will receive a score for eachindicator based on their ranking acrossfour levels. A company can score up to 96
points.

HOW SHOULD THE RESULTS BE
USED?
The Tool will help identify a variety ofstrengths and areas of improvement on
preventing and addressing harassment
and violence against women. The Tool islikely to identify a range of opportunities
for improvement. When using this Tool, it
is important for businesses to identify theirpriorities based on the potential impact ofdelayed action, as well as their ambitionsin advancing a safe and inclusive working
environment for women.
The company can use the results
to improve its internal processes,
e.g. creating an action plan, forming
committees to take forward the work,
creating accountability mechanisms, etc.
Upon completing the self-assessment, theresults can be shared and communicatedinternally. Given the sensitivity of some of
the information collected, results should
be shared as a high-level summary. For
the purposes of internal advocacy, moredetailed results can be shared. However,
the identity of those interviewed aspart of the assessment should be kept
anonymous.

46

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

THE WORKPLACE DIAGNOSTIC TOOL:POLICY, PROCESS AND PROGRAMMEThe BSR Logo

Business Area: Policies

Don’t dilute the power of the spark by using it alone
as a design element, in part or whole.
As you’ll see on the following pages, there aremany variations of the BSR logo. Contact theCommunications team for help finding the correct
one for your needs.
BSR Brand Guidelines

Questions

Scoring Criteria

Guiding Question

Beginner (1 point)

Improver (2 points)

Achiever (3 points)

Leader (4 points)

There may be guidelines
on workplace violenceand harassment, but there
are no clear policies onviolence and harassment.

There is a standalone,zero-tolerance policy on
addressing all forms of violence and harassment atwork. The policy outlines
provisions on prevention
and redressal.

There is a local policy(and global if applicable)on the prevention andredressal of violence andharassment. Harassment
is an issue integrated
or referenced in otherpolicies and codes ofconduct including, but
not limited to, the humanrights policy, vendor policy, supplier policy, suppliercodes of conduct andaudit protocols, etc. The
policy offers protection
to workers regardless of
their contractual status,
suppliers, contractors,
vendors, interns, andvolunteers. For companies
with operations in morethan one country, there isa global policy.

The harassment policy
includes provisions to
support staff experiencing
violence outside of theworkplace (i.e. domestic
violence) and the safeguarding measures extend
to suppliers, contractors,
vendors, interns andvolunteers. In companies
working closely with communities (e.g. mining companies), the safeguarding
measures are extended to
the local communities inwhich they operate. In addition, the policy is clearlycommunicated to workers
and managers throughtrainings, handbooks,
noticeboard postings,
and other means that areaccessible to workers.

There may be guidelines,
but there is no policy
defining violence andharrassment, and there is
no written commitment toaddress it.

The existent policy does
not include a statement ofintent to eliminate violenceand harassment, nor doesit provide a clear definitionof what constitutes harassment.

There is a policy on
preventing and addressing
violence and harassment
but it does not include aclear definition of what
constitutes such behavior.

The policy has astatement of intent (i.e.
mission, zero-tolerance)
highlighting a business’commitment to eliminating
all forms of violence andharassment at work, notlimited to sexual harassment.

The company does nothave a grievance mechanism or, if a grievancemechanism exists it isused to handle complaints related to violenceand harassment, but it
is not dedicated to only
addressing violence andharassment.

There is a dedicatedgrievance mechanism tohandle cases related toviolence and harassment,
but the guidelines are notclear.

The grievance mechanism
is supported by internal
guidelines on confidentiality, handling sensitive
information, interviewing,
investigation, and remediation.

Staff appointed to thegrievance mechanisms
receive regular trainings on
how to conduct investigations and interviews related to harassment cases
to ensure accessibility,
impartiality and confidentiality. Senior management
is dedicated to making theprocess and outcomesof grievance mechanisms
accessible and transparent by communicatingthem to staff and/or board
as appropriate.

There is no grievancemechanism, or there is
only one formal grievancemechanism through HR orline managers.

Aside from reporting
through HR or line managers, there is a separate
complaints committee tohandle grievances.

Our company provides
anonymous reporting
channels (i.e. grievanceboxes, hotlines).

Our company provides
a separate channel for
whistle-blowing providing
the necessary protection
against retaliation. Our
company also encourages
the use of both formal andinformal grievance mechanisms, as well as externalgrievance channels ifnecessary.

1.

Are there
policies
designed toaddress violenceand harassment?

2.

Does thepolicy include
a definition on what
constitutes violenceand harassment,
but well as acommitment
to prevent andaddress it?

3.

Is there agrievancemechanism toaddress violenceand harassment?

4.

Are there
multiplechannels ofgrievancemechanisms in ourcompany?

The BSR “spark” logomark is a visual representationof BSR’s role as a Catalyst for Progress. It is an
integral part of BSR’s identity. The spark is both thesymbol of our organization and the central organizing
element of every communication it appears on.

Company
Score

89

47

THE WORKPLACE DIAGNOSTIC TOOL:POLICY, PROCESS AND PROGRAMMEThe BSR Logo

Business Area: Process

Don’t dilute the power of the spark by using it alone
as a design element, in part or whole.
As you’ll see on the following pages, there aremany variations of the BSR logo. Contact theCommunications team for help finding the correct
one for your needs.
BSR Brand Guidelines

Questions

Scoring Criteria

Guiding Question

Beginner (1 point)

Improver (2 points)

Achiever (3 points)

Leader (4 points)

Our company is aware of
the specific functions andoperations that are at risk.
However, the risks are
identified on an informal
basis.

Our company is aware of
the specific functions andoperations that are at risk.
The risks are identified onan ad hoc basis and arereported and recorded.

Our company conducts
a risk assessment ofviolence and harassment
issues related to theirbusiness operations.

Preventing and addressing
violence and harassment
is fully integrated as partof the risk assessmentand mitigation plansacross all business operations.

Data on violence andharassment is collected
through the formal reporting mechanisms only. Data
is analysed to understandthe trends in the numberof cases over time.

Data is collected througha combination of thenumber of cases reported
through formal channels
and other staff feedback
mechanisms (i.e. annual
survey), as well as fromtrainings. Data is analysedannually.

A selected team meets atleast on an annual basis to
use the data collected on
violence and harassment
to inform the design ofpolicies and programmes.

The data collected from violence and harassment isused to inform their business strategy, as well as
their policies, processes,
and programs. The dataalso serves to evaluate theeffectiveness of company
programmes.

Our company keeps
records of the number ofcomplaints, but the data
is not shared internally nor
externally.

Our company publishes
the number of complaints
related to violence andharassment internally.

Our company shares thedata related to complaints
with the board.

Our company shares thenumber of complaints externally (i.e. human rights
reports, CSR reports) andspecifies the nature of thegrievance and the reporting channel.

The employer is responsible for informing
employees of the risks ofharassment associatedwith work. Only HR isaccountable for preventing
and addressing violence.

Managers have acountability for reporting in goodfaith when encountering
violence and harassment,
and addressing it whenappropriate.

Business units including
procurement, supply chain
management/compliance,
and teams that work withbusiness partners are also
held accountable.

The Board is accountable for preventing andaddressing violence andharassment. In addition,
every member of staff,
regardless of contractual
status, is responsible forprevention. Employees areencouraged to report as
victims or witnesses.

The company does notprovide remedies forvictims and sanctions for
perpetrators or, if stated in
the policy, they are neither
clearly defined nor communicated to employees.

The company condemns
actions of violence andharassment but is limited
to describing disciplinary
actions for perpetrators
without identifying remedies for the victim.

The company has a policythat defines remedies andprotections for victims such as removing themfrom working directlywith the perpetrator oralerting company security
about the abuser - andsanctions for perpetrators
but does not include clear
guidance on how to applythem.

The company provides
effective remedies forvictims and sanctions for
perpetrators. The appropriate remedies may include
reinstatement, compensation for moral and material
damages, compensation
for legal fees and costs,
compensation in case ofpsychological or physicaldisability or inability towork due to work-related
violence and harassment,
and training for alternate
employment options. Disciplinary actions conform tolegal requirements and arereviewed by management.

5.

Does ourcompany
conduct
assessmentsof violence andharassment
across business
operations?

6.

Do we collectdata to inform
decision-making
and the design ofpolicies, processes,
and programs?

7.

Do we reporton the stateof violence andharassment
internally andexternally?

8.

Who isaccountablefor preventing andaddressing violenceand harassment?

9.

Does thecompany
provide effective
remedies for victims
and sanctions for
perpetrators?

The BSR “spark” logomark is a visual representationof BSR’s role as a Catalyst for Progress. It is an
integral part of BSR’s identity. The spark is both thesymbol of our organization and the central organizing
element of every communication it appears on.

Company
Score

89

48

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

THE WORKPLACE DIAGNOSTIC TOOL:POLICY, PROCESS, AND PROGRAMMEThe BSR Logo

Business Area: Programme

The BSR “spark” logomark is a visual representationof BSR’s role as a Catalyst for Progress. It is an
integral part of BSR’s identity. The spark is both thesymbol of our organization and the central organizing
element of every communication it appears on.
Don’t dilute the power of the spark by using it alone
as a design element, in part or whole.
As you’ll see on the following pages, there aremany variations of the BSR logo. Contact theCommunications team for help finding the correct
one for your needs.
BSR Brand Guidelines

Questions

Scoring Criteria

Guiding Question

Beginner (1 point)

Improver (2 points)

Achiever (3 points)

Leader (4 points)

Training on violence andharassment policies is
included as part of the
on-boarding process for
employees.

All employees are provided annual, knowledge-driven training on
violence and harassment
prevention related to policies and mechanisms.

All employees are trainedon how they can support
wider prevention andredressal efforts according
to their specific business
functions through job-specific and case-specifictrainings.

All employees are provided training on the root
causes of violence andharassment on topics
such as gender andpower. All employees areprovided “bystander training” to encourage them totake action to prevent or
reduce harm. Trainings are
not only knowledge-basedor job/case-specific
but also interactive andreflective.

Programmes andinitiatives are available
to suppliers/business
partners only to meet legal
requirements.

Programmes and initiatives are implemented
reactively to the reported
cases of violence andharassment.

Programmes andinitiatives are in place aspart of a larger strategy
on tackling violence andharassment and/or genderequality. Company has anunderstanding of high-risk
contexts and programmes
are implemented proactively to prevent violenceand harassment fromhappening.

Where possible, programmes and initiatives
have components
addressing the root
causes of violence andharassment (e.g. social
norms), and/or targetingcustomers, community
at large and the business
community by runninginfluence campaigns.

There are no programmes
to support employees
facing domestic violence.

Employees facing domestic violence are referred toexternal services.

HR proactively keeps employees facing domestic
violence safe by identifying
an emergency contact
person, a picture of theabuser to security, andproviding flexible working
arrangements.

Employees facing domestic violence are provided
comprehensive support
from the company (e.g.
awareness campaign
to encourage victims tocome forward, paid leave,alternative employment
opportunities, and relocation support if necessary).

10.

Do
employees
receive training
on violence andharassment
policies?

11.

Are there
programs
in place on theprevention ofviolence andharassment
extending tostakeholders
beyond directbusiness operations(i.e. suppliers,
vendors, business
partners)?

12.

Are there
programs toprovide support toemployees facing
domestic violence?

Total Score: :Company
Score

89

49

THE WORKPLACE DIAGNOSTIC TOOL:STRATEGY

The BSR Logo

Business Process: Vision and Strategy

Don’t dilute the power of the spark by using it alone
as a design element, in part or whole.
As you’ll see on the following pages, there aremany variations of the BSR logo. Contact theCommunications team for help finding the correct
one for your needs.
BSR Brand Guidelines

Questions

Scoring Criteria

Guiding Question

Beginner (1 point)

Improver (2 points)

Achiever (3 points)

Leader (4 points)

There is no clear
and transparent
strategy or plan toguide initiatives,
investments andactivities on violenceand harassment.

There are annual
plans on initiatives,
investments andactivities on violenceand harassment, but
no clear strategy.

Initiatives, investments
and activities
on violence andharassment areincluded in an overall
gender strategy or astandalone strategy.

The strategy iswell-communicatedthroughout business
functions. The strategy
is championed bysenior management
and the Board is held
accountable for the
implementation of thestrategy.

1.

Do we have a clear andtransparent strategy to
guide all future initiatives,
investments and activities onviolence and harassment?

Business Process: Values and Approach2.

What is our business’
approach to preventing
and addressing violence andharassment?

Preventing andaddressing violenceand harassment isviewed as a matter ofcompliance.

Preventing andaddressing violenceand harassment
is considered as
risk-mitigation or
only in response tonegative events, i.e. toprotect the businessnot necessarily toproactively protect
employees.

Preventing andaddressing violenceand harassment
is part of a wider
approach topromoting humanrights and nondiscrimination.

Preventing andaddressing violenceand harassment
is part of a wider
approach topromoting genderequality and women’s
empowerment.

Internal stakeholders
see the importanceof preventing violenceand harassment andare actively engaged
in its implementation.

There is data
(e.g. from annual
employee survey)
that reveals that allinternal stakeholders
see the importanceof preventing andaddressing violenceand harassment
against women andthey are actively
engaged in its
implementation.

Business Process: Stakeholder buy-in

3.

Do internal stakeholders
see the importance ofpreventing and addressing
violence and harassment against
women and feel part of thecompany’s strategy?

There is little
awareness on thecompany’s strategy
to prevent andaddress violenceand harassment (ifexistent) and of theimportance of it.

Internal stakeholders
are aware of thecompany’s strategy
to prevent andaddress violence andharassment.

The BSR “spark” logomark is a visual representationof BSR’s role as a Catalyst for Progress. It is an
integral part of BSR’s identity. The spark is both thesymbol of our organization and the central organizing
element of every communication it appears on.

Total Score: :Company
Score

89

50

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

THE WORKPLACE DIAGNOSTIC TOOL:LEADERSHIP

Business Process: Internal Leadership

The BSR Logo

Don’t dilute the power of the spark by using it alone
as a design element, in part or whole.
As you’ll see on the following pages, there aremany variations of the BSR logo. Contact theCommunications team for help finding the correct
one for your needs.
BSR Brand Guidelines

Questions

Scoring Criteria

Guiding Question

Beginner (1 point)

Improver (2 points)

Achiever (3 points)

Leader (4 points)

Senior management
has not made a public
commitment to tackle violence and harassment.

Senior management has
spoken about stopping
violence and harassmentin the workplace, but
has not made a formal
commitment.

Senior management
has made a public
commitment on violence and harassment.

Senior management actively advocates on preventing
and addressing violenceand harassment in publicforums, for instance, in joining collaborative initiatives,
coalitions, and in advocating for change in local andinternational policy.

There are no formal
roles, responsibilities, orboard accountability on
progress and outcomes
related to violenceagainst women, and the
responsibility to prevent
and address violenceand harassment is not
linked to the performance of leaders andmanagers.

Key individuals havebeen assigned responsibility for overseeing
prevention of violenceand harassment but responsibilities are siloed/
limited to certain parts ofthe business (e.g. don’t
cover country-level operations, supply chain,etc.) and they are notdirectly linked to performance evaluation .

There are formal roles,
responsibilities, andboard accountability
on progress andoutcomes related
to violence against
women andmanagement andleader’s performanceis measured against
that. In addition, thescope of responsibility
covers supply chain,
local operations,subsidiaries, etc.

Progress and outcomes
related to violence against
women are analysed andshared across managementlevels - including at board
level. The company has
established KPIs related toprevention of violence andharassment that are included as part of the company’s performance review
and impact performanceof employees that have a
responsibility.

1.

Has senior management made aclear public commitment to tackle violenceand harassment?

2.

Are formal roles,
responsibilities,
and board accountability on progress andoutcomes defined andcascaded across management levels, andlinked to performance
evaluations?

Business Process: External Leadership

3.

Does our company
have a strategy toengage suppliers, business partners and local
subsidiaries by providing capacity-building
to help them advance
women and address
the issue of violenceand harassment atwork and in the community?

Our engagement strategy does not involve
capacity-building on
advancing women or
addressing violence andharassment. The issue ofviolence and harassment is confined tocompliance and auditing
purposes only.

Our engagement strategy involves capacity-building on advancing women but notaddressing violence andharassment at work andin the community, andsupplier engagement
is limited to awarenessraising on violence andharassment.

Our engagement
strategy involves
capacity-building on
advancing women andaddressing violenceand harassment
by putting in placemeasures to prevent
violence against women in the workplaceand in the community,
e.g. training, grievancemechanisms, etc.

Our engagement strategy
involves a routine follow-up
on progress on advancing women at work andaddressing violence andharassment at work and in
the community, as well as
partnering with suppliers,
business partners, subsidiaries, and local organization
to address social norms
that are the root cause ofviolence and harassment.

Does our business have a rolein influencing andadvocating to prevent
and address violenceand harassment in ourcommunity?

Our business responsibility in preventing andaddressing violence andharassment is limited todirect business operations.

Our business responsibility is to direct business
operations, but ourbusiness provides financial and other support
to local initiatives onviolence and harassment
on an ad hoc basis.

Our business responsibility is to prevent
and address violenceand harassmentin the community
surrounding our direct
operations.

Our business responsibility
is to prevent and address
violence and harassment
throughout the company’svalue chain and in theimpacted communities.
We are actively involved
in discussions with local
women’s and/or advocacy
organisations, and/or wehave joined a Collaborative
Initiative to effect change,
and/or we are advocating
for public policy change.

4.

The BSR “spark” logomark is a visual representationof BSR’s role as a Catalyst for Progress. It is an
integral part of BSR’s identity. The spark is both thesymbol of our organization and the central organizing
element of every communication it appears on.

Total Score: :Company
Score

89

51

THE WORKPLACE DIAGNOSTIC TOOL:WORKPLACE CULTURE
Business Process: Promoting women’s advancement

The BSR Logo

Questions

Scoring Criteria

Guiding Question

Beginner (1 point)

Improver (2points)Achiever (3 points)

Leader (4 points)

Does your company
have a commitment
to build a pipeline ofqualified women for
management/senior
management positions
and have plans to increase
women’s representation inleadership positions?

Our company has nottaken any measures
to build a pipeline ofwomen in management
and leadership
positions.

Our company
offers counsellingand other support
for womeninterested inleadership
positions on an ad
hoc basis.

Our company has astandalone policy orcommitment on theprofessional development
opportunities for women
including mentorship andcoaching. Our company
tracks the number of women,
and men promoted over timeto evaluate the effectivenessof their initiatives.

Our company reports to theboard on the successes andchallenges of these programs
and is held accountable on
the actual increase in womenin leadership positions. Our
company offers various typesof support for women leaders,
including a system of maleallies or a mentorship programat all levels.

Does your company
use gender neutral
evaluation and appraisal
systems in hiring processes,
staff performance reviews,
job evaluations (includingpay) and in promotion
processes?

Our company has notstarted a review of its
hiring, evaluation, or
promotion systems forgender biases.

Our company
has plans and/or has started
to review its
hiring, evaluationand promotion
systems forgender biases onan ad-hoc basis.

Our company has conducted
a comprehensive review of
its hiring, staff evaluation andpromotion systems to checkfor gender biases based ona clearly defined framework.

The strategy is wellcommunicated throughout
business functions. The
strategy is championed bysenior management and theBoard is held accountable
for the implementation of thestrategy.

1.

2.

Business Process: Promoting a positive workplace culture

3.

Does your company
actively encourage
discussions on violenceand harassment, as wellas providing space for
employees to voice theirconcerns outside ofgrievance mechanisms?

Our company does
not have any formal
channels for employees
to share their concerns
or, if reporting channels
exist, employees are
only informed on thegrievance mechanism.

Our company
conducts anannual survey(employee wellbeing or thelike) to collectresponses from
employees tobetter understandthe work
environment.

Our company has a regular,interactive and formal
consultative mechanism
which allows us to collectfeedback from multiple
channels. In addition, ourcompany provides training
to encourage reporting anddiscussions and ensuresa safe space for womenand men to voice general
concerns.

Preventing and addressing
violence and harassment ispart of a wider approach topromoting gender equality andwomen’s empowerment.

Business Process: Promoting gender equality

4.

Has your company
conducted training
on gender equality andsensitivity?

5.

Are men involvedin the promotion ofgender equality in theworkplace?

Our company has
not conducted any
trainings related togender equality or
inclusion.

Our company
has conductedtraining on nondiscrimination andinclusion, but not
specifically on
gender equality.

Our company conducts
training on gender equality,
inclusion and unconscious
bias for all employees.

Our company monitors andevaluates the impact oftraining on gender equality andinclusion.

All of our champions
and advocates ofgender equality are
women. There is no planto actively encourage
men's involvementin promoting genderequality.

There is a strategy
to encourage
men to promote
gender equality at
work.

There are male championsof gender equality in theworkplace.

There are male championsof gender equality acrossthe workplace, including
champions at senior
management and leadershiplevels.

Total Score: :The BSR “spark” logomark is a visual representationof BSR’s role as a Catalyst for Progress. It is an
integral part of BSR’s identity. The spark is both thesymbol of our organization and the central organizing
element of every communication it appears on.
Don’t dilute the power of the spark by using it alone
as a design element, in part or whole.
As you’ll see on the following pages, there aremany variations of the BSR logo. Contact theCommunications team for help finding the correct
one for your needs.
BSR Brand Guidelines

Company
Score

89

52

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

THE WORKPLACE DIAGNOSTIC TOOL:DEFINITIONS AND GLOSSARY
The BSR Logo

Term

Definition

All employees

All employees includes all persons employed by a business, regardless of their contractual status(including part-time workers, zero-contract workers and workers employed through a third party).

Business operations

Business operations refer to the different business units and functions across a company. This can
include horizontal functions such as HR, finance, sustainability, procurement, business development/
marketing, etc. It can also include vertical units such as subsidiaries.

Domestic violence

Domestic violence is any form of physical and sexual violence and coercive control perpetrated byintimate partners or family members. This form of violence leads to emotional, financial, physical,
psychological, or sexual harm or suffering.

Flexible working
arrangements

Flexible working arrangements allow employees to have greater control over their work-life balance.
Flexible arrangements can include part-time work, more flexible start and end times, or working fromhome or remotely.

GenderGender refers to the characteristics of women and men, such as norms (see gender norms), roles andrelationships between women and men. According to the World Health Organization, "'gender' refers
to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities and attributes that a given society considers
appropriate for men and women." On the other hand, sex is defined as "thebiological and physiological characteristics that define men and women."

Gender equality

Gender equality is the concept that all humans, both women and men, have equal rights, responsibilities
and opportunities. Gender equality means that women and men are free to make decisions and choices
without being limited by stereotypes, gender roles, or prejudice. Gender equality does not mean thatwomen and men are the same – it means that their rights, responsibilities and opportunities do notdepend on their gender.

Gender norms

Gender norms are how women and men are expected to behave by society based on their gender.
These norms or rules are taught at an early age at home, in schools, in the community, in the workplaceand in society.

Gender sensitivity training

Gender sensitivity training aims to create an understanding of gender and its impact on women andmen at work, at home and in the community. The trainings will help participants reflect on how thisaffects them personally and how it affects those around them (i.e. family, friends, colleagues). After being
sensitised, the trainings usually entail some form of personal and workplace action plan to ensure thatthe learnings are put to action.

Safeguarding measures

The policies or guidelines in place to guarantee that employees, as well as third parties (e.g. contractors,
suppliers) and local communities in which the company and its supply chain operate, are protectedagainst violence and harassment.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are those who have influence and are impacted by a decision. Stakeholders can be internaland external. Internal stakeholders are employees. External stakeholders can include business partners,
suppliers, vendors and the wider community in which businesses have operations.

Violence and harassment

Violence and harassment are a continuum of unacceptable behaviors and practices leading to physical,
psychological, or sexual harm or suffering.

Working environment

A working environment encompasses more than just the physical working space to include anythingthat arises of or out of work. External business meetings and functions, the social interactions that occur
outside of working hours (i.e. at social functions, after work drinks) and the commute to and from work
would constitute as the working environment.

Workplace culture

Workplace culture is the distinct character of a business. It is the environment surrounding employees
and the day-to-day work, including the mission and values. A workplace culture shapes how employees
are expected to behave and how they can expect others to do so in return.

The BSR “spark” logomark is a visual repreof BSR’s role as a Catalyst for Progress. It i
integral part of BSR’s identity. The spark is b
symbol of our organization and the central
element of every communication it appears

Don’t dilute the power of the spark by usin
as a design element, in part or whole.

As you’ll see on the following pages, there
many variations of the BSR logo. Contact t
Communications team for help finding the
one for your needs.
BSR Brand

53

GLOSSARY AND ADDITIONAL RESOURCESGLOSSARY

VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT LINKS(a) the term “violence and harassment”
in the world of work refers to a rangeof unacceptable behaviours andpractices, or threats thereof, whether
a single occurrence or repeated, that
aim at, result in, or are likely to resultin physical, psychological, sexual or
economic harm, and includes gender
based violence and harassment;(b) the term “gender based violenceand harassment” means violenceand harassment directed at persons
because of their sex or gender, oraffecting persons of a particular sex orgender disproportionately, and includes
sexual harassment. (ILO Violence andHarassment Convention, 2019)

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Refers to behaviour by an intimate
partner or family member that causes
physical, sexual or psychological harm,
including physical aggression, sexual
coercion, psychological abuse, andcontrolling behaviors. (WHO, 2013)

The links below provide further advice
and examples of what constitutes
violence and harassment and domestic
violence.
World Bank Group (2014) “Violenceagainst women resource guide,”
http://www.vawgresourceguide.org/
terminolgy
United Nations Committee on
the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination against Women(CEDAW), General Recommendation
No. 19, Violence against Women,paragraph 18, XI session, 1992.)https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/
Shared%20Documents/1_Global/INT_CEDAW_GEC_3731_E.pdf
UK Equality and Human Rights
Commission (2017) Sexual Harassment
and the Law; guidance for employers
https://www.equalityhumanrights.
com/en/publication-download/
sexual-harassment-and-law-guidanceemployers
World Health Organisation (2017)
Violence Against Women Factsheet
https://www.who.int/news-room/factsheets/detail/violence-against-women
Action Aid (undated) ‘Domestic
Violence and abuse https://www.
actionaid.org.uk/about-us/what-wedo/violence-against-women-and-girls/
domestic-violence-and-abuse?gclid=Cj0
KCQjwv8nqBRDGARIsAHfR9wDMP6PJY
XLnd-DDzCzOr98aOvhJu-EqLdC4mbqx
mk7HwCR56I7kIiQaAgwWEALw_wcB

54

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Business in the Community (2018)
Domestic Abuse: A Toolkit for
Employers https://wellbeing.bitc.org.
uk/all-resources/toolkits/domesticabuse-toolkit
IFC (2018) Unlocking
Opportunities for Women andBusiness: A Toolkit of Actions andStrategies for Oil, Gas and Mining
Companies https://www.commdev.
org/pdf/publications/Unlocking_Opportunities_for_Women_and_Business_IFC-2.pdf
IFC (2019) The Impact ofDomestic and Sexual Violenceon the Workplace in Solomon
Islands https://www.ifc.org/wps/
wcm/connect/0b19b164-00534ad2-bbcd-21a76a8b963b/
IFC_Solomon_Island_Survey_
Report_Web+Printable+FINAL.
pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=mDWZ3dP
IFC (2019) The Business Casefor Workplace Responses toDomestic and Sexual Violencein Fiji https://www.ifc.org/
wps/wcm/connect/de991ebca7f0-4118-9d13-daa8fcfead9d/
IFC_Fiji_DSV_Report.
pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=mMYY8KA
IFC (2017) Gender-Smart Business
Solutions Case Study: Addressing
Gender Based Violence With
Companies in Papua New Guinea
https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/
connect/c70d8db6-cacb-465db3a9-5068b54cd3c9/10953_
Gender_Case_Study_BCFW.
pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=lLlleuH

Morris, J. & Pillinger, J. (2016).
Gender-based violence in global
supply chains: Resource Kit. ITCILO and FWF. http://www.itcilo.
org/en/community/news/resourcekit-gender-based-violence-inglobal-supply-chains
Netherlands Enterprise Agency& CNV (undated) Violence@ work: A guide for SMEs toprevent violence in the workplace
https://www.rvo.nl/sites/default/
files/2017/05/Brochure_violence_work.pdf
OECD/ILO Global Deal (2019) The
contribution of social dialogue togender equality https://www.ilo.
org/global/publications/books/
WCMS_679957/lang--en/index.
htm
OurWatch Australia (2019)
Workplace Equality and Respect
Implementation Guide https://
d2bb010tdzqaq7.cloudfront.
net/wp-content/uploads/
sites/2/2019/05/01030510/
OurWatch_WER_
ImplementationGuide_April-2019.
pdf
Campbell and Chinnery CARE
Australia (2018) What Works?
Preventing and Responding
to Sexual Harassment in the
Workplace: A Rapid Review ofEvidence https://www.care.org.
au/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/
STOP_What-works-to-addressworkplace-sexual-harassment_
Rapid-Review-of-evidence

Pillinger, J. (2019) VODAFONE
Toolkit on Domestic Abuse
https://www.vodafone.com/
content/dam/vodafone-images/
foundation/news/Vodafone_Foundation_Toolkit_on_domestic_
violence_abuse_at_work_
Recognise_respond_refer.pdf
Pillinger, J. UN Women/ILO(2019) Handbook: Addressing
Violence and Harassment Against
Women in the World of Work(p11) https://www.unwomen.
org/-/media/headquarters/
attachments/sections/library/publications/2019/addressingviolence-and-harassment-againstwomen-in-the-world-of-work-en.
pdf?la=en&vs=4050
UN Women (2018) A Global
Women’s Safety Frameworkin Rural Spaces https://www.
unwomen.org/-/media/
headquarters/attachments/
sections/library/publications/2018/global-safety-framework-in-ruralspaces-influenced-by-tea-sectorcompressed.pdf?la=en&vs=4245

55

ABOUT US

Anglo American, headquartered in
the UK, is one of the world’s largest
mining companies. Its diversified
portfolio of world class competitivemining operations and undeveloped
resources provide the raw materials
to help the growing consumerdriven demands of the world’s
developed and maturing economies.
In keeping with its Purpose of
re-imagining mining to improve
people’s lives, it seeks to operate
a way that not only generates
sustainable returns for shareholders,
but that also makes a real and lasting
positive contribution to society.

With its origins dating back to
2005, Business Fights Poverty
has grown into the world’s largest
business-led collaboration network
focused on social impact. BusinessFights Poverty harnesses the powerof collaboration to help pioneeringinternational businesses access theinsights and relationships they needto unlock new opportunities forsocial impact.
www.businessfightspoverty.org

www.careinternational.org.uk

www.angloamerican.com

IFC—a sister organization of theWorld Bank and member of theWorld Bank Group—is the largest
global development institution
focused on the private sector
in emerging markets. We workwith more than 2,000 businesses
worldwide, using our capital,
expertise, and influence to create
markets and opportunities where
they are needed most. In fiscal
year 2019, we delivered morethan $19 billion in long-term
financing for developing countries,
leveraging the power of the private
sector to end extreme poverty andboost shared prosperity. For more
information, visit www.ifc.org.

CARE International works aroundthe globe to save lives, defeat
poverty and achieve social justice.
We put women and girls in thecentre because we know that wecannot overcome poverty until
all people have equal rights andopportunities. CARE International
run poverty-fighting programmes
and deliver life-saving aid in 79
developing countries. CARE
International UK is one of 14 full
members of the global CARE
International confederation.

Primark is an international retailer
that offers high quality fashion,
beauty and homeware at value
for money prices. It has over 370
stores in 12 countries Republic of
Ireland, the UK, Spain, Portugal,
Germany, The Netherlands,
Belgium, Austria, France, the US,
Italy,Slovenia, and employs over
75,000 employees. Products forPrimark are made with respect forpeople and planet.
www.primark.com

56

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019

GENDER BASEDVIOLENCE SURVEYQUESTIONS

1 Business has a strong role to play inaddressing gender based violence andharassment (single choice answer)
Strongly agree
Agree
Somewhat Agree
Disagree

GENDER BASED VIOLENCESURVEY QUESTIONSBusiness Fights Poverty - Addressing Gender Based
Violence ChallengeThis survey forms part of the Business Fights Poverty
Challenge exploring: “What role can business play intackling GBV?”

Strongly Disagree
Don’t Know

2. Please give more details about why(open text answer)

3. In your opinion, commercial companies
have a responsibility in addressing GBV(multiple choice question)

By filling in this survey you are contributing important
insight into how businesses are, can or should be tackling
GBV - whether in the workplace, or supporting employees
who are victims and survivors of domestic violence. All
information is anonymous and confidential, unless you stateotherwise.
Your insights will help in the creation of a Toolkit, which aims
to highlight best practices for businesses in tackling GBV.
For more information about the Challenge, please click here.
For the purposes of this survey, we are focusing on GBV
which often occurs as the result of a power imbalancethat frequently, but not exclusively, affects women. We
are considering violence to be “any act...that results in,or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or
suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion
or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring inpublic or in private life…” WHO.
Harassment is unwelcome verbal or physical behaviour that
unreasonably interferes with work or creates an intimidating,hostile or offensive work environment. The behaviour may
be one-time or continuous. Sexual harassment can include
unwelcome verbal advances or behaviour, requests forsexual favours, or inappropriate sexual comments World
Bank.

A)

In their workplaces

B)

Within the community

C)

Both

D)

Neither

4. Which of the following actions has yourorganisation taken to address GBV? (Yes,No, Unsure)-

Developed policies and measures tosupport gender equality in the workplace-

Conducted a gender audit of all policies
Developed a clear policy and commitment
on preventing and responding to GBV-

Effectively communicated the policy andcommitment across the organisation-

Developed a network of external support
organisations for victims and survivorsof GBV (eg. social services, counselling,
police, etc)-

Developed a reporting procedure
to confidentially report violent or
inappropriate behaviour-

Implemented mediation or other57-

measures to follow through with

7. On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is not very

concrete consequences for incidents

significant and 5 is highly significant, howthat occur within the workplacesignificant are each of these barriers in

Delivered training and awareness raising
activities around gender equality andGBV-terms of successfully addressing GBV in
the workplace?
-organisation

Implemented monitoring and evaluation
policies/actions/measures to tackle and-Awareness of the International Labour

in your working environment because ofviolence and harassment in the world of

possible fear of repercussions

in your working environment due to thethe International Labour Organisation

sensitive nature of the topic

harassment in the world of work
Developed ways of addressing

community-

Other (please specify)

10. In which country/ies do you work?

11. What is your function within theorganisation? (Open text answer)-

Lack of senior buy-in
Lack of appropriate mechanisms to deal
with itgender-based violence outside of
the organisation in the surrounding

Wholesale and retail trade

Inability to talk about the subject openly

Actions put into place with regard to(ILO) Convention Ending violence and--Transportation, logistics and storage

Inability to talk about the subject openly

Organisation (ILO) Convention Ending
work
-

-

Scientific and technical activities

Gender inequality in social and cultural
norms in the community

prevent GBV-Gender inequality within theReal Estate and accommodation

12. Do you have any responsibility
regarding gender diversity or GBV-

Other, please

issues within your organisation? (Yes/specify____________________

No, if Yes please explain)

Other………..
8. If you are interested in sharing more

5. Has your organisation addressed GBV
through means other than those specified
above? If so, please specify: (open text

information on the work your organisation
is doing to tackle GBV, please share youremail address and we will be in touch:answer)you work for? (single choice answer)
Micro (less than 10 employees)
SME (10-250 employees)

9. What is your organisation sector?
6 (Part I). In your opinion - are the13. What is the size of the organisation

National (approx 250-5,000)(single choice answer)

Multinational (10,000 plus employees)

measures or actions that your organisation

Administrative and support service

is taking effective in tackling GBV.

activities(yes/no/not sure)

Agriculture, forestry and fishingArts, entertainment and recreation

Go to end survey page and thank you

Construction and infrastructure

If you would like any further information
regarding this Challenge, please contact

Education
6 (Part II). Please explain your answer

Financial and business services(open text box)

Governmental organisation / Public
Sector
Health and social work activities
Information and communication
Manufacturing
NGO / Charity / Not-for-Profit

anna@businessfightspoverty.org

58

TACKLING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AT WORK | SEPTEMBER 2019ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This report was authored by Alice
Allan from Business Fights Poverty
with support from Chiara Condi.
The following Challenge core teammembers provided regular guidance
and advice; Henriette Kolb (IFC), Hesterle Roux (CARE International UK),
Hermien Botes (Anglo American) and
Lindsey Block (Primark). We would
like to specifically acknowledge thefollowing individuals who kindly gaveup their time to contribute to thedevelopment of this report:

Katja Freiwald, UnileverPeter Gilheany, BITC/Forster
Communications
Karina Govindja, Vodafone
Ashika Gunasena, Chrysalis Sri Lanka
Shabnam Hameed, IFC East Asia Pacific
Dean Laplonge, Factive Consulting
Hester Le Roux, CARE International UK
Nadege Lhaig, FACE Foundation
Felizitas Lichtenberg, Vodafone

Halima Ahmed,
Ethical Trading Initiative
Alex Barnett, TFG Brands
Celine Bonnaire, Kering
Lindsey Block, Primark

Aditi Mohapatra, BSR
Neta Meidav, VAULT
Winfridah Nyakwara, Unilever
Fabrizio Orlando, TripAdvisor

Hermien Botes, Anglo American

Verity O’Shauhnnessy,
CARE- International UK

Kate Cooper, DFID

Sara Park, ILO/Better Work

Natalie Deacon, Avon

Jane Pillinger,
Independent Gender Expert

Suzy Chinnery, CARE Australia
Susan Diana, IFC
Rachel Durdin, Rio Tinto
Freda Fa’aitoa, BSP
Vindhya Fernando, Chrysalis Sri Lanka

Sarah Ruck, EBRD
Saskia Wishart, Fairwear Foundation

59

ENDNOTES
1 Antonio Guterres (2018 November 25) UN Statement
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against
Women, Message for 2018 from the UN Secretary General
https://www.un.org/en/events/endviolenceday/sgmessage.shtml

14 Does S, Gundemir S, Shih M Harvard Business Review(2018 June 11) Research: How Sexual Harassment Affects
a Company’s Public Image https://hbr.org/2018/06/research-how-sexual-harassment-affects-a-companys-public-image

2 Puri Lakshimi (2017 September 21) The Economic
Costs of Violence Against Women, High Level Debate
https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2016/9/
speech-by-lakshmi-puri-on-economic-costs-of-violenceagainst-women A recent World Bank Group report
estimated the costs of IPV across five countries to be
between 1.2 to 3.7% of GDP, equivalent to what most
governments spend on primary education. Klugman, J.,
Hanmer, L., Twigg, S., Hasan, T., McCleary-Sills, J. andSanta Maria, J. (2014). Voice and Agency: Empowering
Women and Girls for Shared Prosperity. Washington, DC:
World Bank.

15 OurWatch Australia (2019) Workplace Equality and
Respect Standards https://d2bb010tdzqaq7.cloudfront.
net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/09/04050108/OurWatch_WER_Standards_2019_2.pdf

3 Vara-Horna (2013) Violence Against Women in Peru
and its Financial Consequences, https://www.giz.de/en/downloads/giz2014-0251en-violence-women-financial-consequences-peru.pdf
4 Allan and LeRoux, (2019 June 10) Business Urge for arobust new global law to end violence and harassment atwork, Business Fights poverty blog.
https://businessfightspoverty.org/articles/business-urgefor-a-robust-new-global-law-to-end-violence-and-harassment-at-work/
5 ILO (2019 June) Violence and Harassment Convention
No.190: https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C190
Supplemented by ILO Violence and Harassment Recommendation.206 https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/
en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO:12100:P12100_INSTRUMENT_ID:4000085:NO
6 OECD DAC (2019 July) Recommendation on Ending
Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance: Key
Pillars of Prevention and Response :https://www.ilo.org/
dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_
ILO_CODE:Rhttp://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/
publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=DCD/DAC(2019)31/
FINAL&docLanguage=En206
7 IFC Addressing Gender Based Violence with companies in Papua New Guinea: https://www.ifc.org/wps/
wcm/connect/c70d8db6-cacb-465d-b3a9-5068b54cd3c9/10953_Gender_Case_Study_BCFW.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=lLlleuH
8 McLean & Bocinski, IWPR (2017) The Economic Costof Intimate partner Violence sexual assault and stalking.
https://iwpr.org/publications/economic-cost-intimate-partner-violence-sexual-assault-stalking/
9 Cooper Sparks Hoel, (undated) Manchester University
for the ILO, The Costs of violence/stress at work and thebenefits of a stress free work environment’.https://www.
ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---safework/documents/publication/wcms_108532.
pdf https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---safework/documents/publication/
wcms_108532.pdf
10 Psychosocial risks and stress at work (website) European Agency For Safety and Health at Work https://osha.
europa.eu/en/themes/psychosocial-risks-and-stress
11 ILO (2019) The Case for Change, ILO Women in
Business Report Executive Summary https://www.ilo.org/
wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/
documents/publication/wcms_700964.pdf
12 Alva group, (2019) How to measure the cost of a bad
reputation https://www.alva-group.com/blog/how-tomeasure-the-cost-of-a-bad-reputation/
13 Dunn J Business Insider (2017 May 18) Uber’s stringof controversies have seriously hurt its reputation, survey
says https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-controversy-scandals-reputation-survey-chart-2017-5?r=US&IR=T

16 Villiers.J Business Insider South Africa (2018 September 07) How Carling Black Label reached more than 45
million people worldwide to fight violence against womenhttps://www.businessinsider.co.za/carling-black-label-noexcuse-anti-gender-based-violence-campaign-reach-45million-people-loerie-award-2018-8
17 OurWatch Australia Workplace Equality and Respect
Standards
18 World Bank (2018) Women, Business and the
Law http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/
en/926401524803880673/Women-Business-and-theLaw-2018
19 Anyangwe E. Financial Times (2018 May 14) Sexual
Harassment: The Hidden Costs
20 IFC (2018) Unlocking Opportunities for Women andBusiness, A Toolkit for Oil Gas and Mining companies;
Toolkit 4 p19
https://www.commdev.org/pdf/publications/ToolSuite4_
Interior_FIN-05-16_LoRes.pdf
21
Pillinger J UNWomen/ILO (2019) Handbook: Addressing Violence and Harassment Against Women in theWorld of Work p36
22 Pillinger J 2019 Vodafone Toolkit: Domestic Abuse at
Work, Recognise, Respond, Refer (see p13) https://www.
vodafone.com/content/dam/vodafone-images/foundation/news/Vodafone_Foundation_Toolkit_on_domestic_
violence_abuse_at_work_Recognise_respond_refer.pdf
23 This is also a key finding of CARE’s evidence review.
Campbell and Chinnery CARE Australia (2018) What
Works? Preventing and Responding to Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: A Rapid Review of Evidence
https://www.care.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/
STOP_What-works-to-address-workplace-sexual-harassment_Rapid-Review-of-evidence
24 The Global Business Certification Standard for Gender Equality http://edge-cert.org/
25

Pillinger J Vodafone Toolkit

26 See p64 UN Women Women/ILO (2019) Handbook:
Addressing Violence Against Women in the World of
Work
27 ILO (2019 June) Violence and Harassment Convention
https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:R206
28 OurWatch (2019) Workplace Equality and
Respect, Workplace Self Assessment Tool https://
d2bb010tdzqaq7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/
sites/2/2019/05/01031506/OurWatch_WER_SelfAssessmentTool_April-2019.pdf
29 Pillinger J 2019 Vodafone Toolkit on Domestic Abuseat Work, Recognise, Respond, Refer (p13) https://www.
vodafone.com/content/dam/vodafone-images/foundation/news/Vodafone_Foundation_Toolkit_on_domestic_
violence_abuse_at_work_Recognise_respond_refer.pdf
30 Adapted from UN Women 2018 A Global Women’s
Safety Framework in Rural Spaces https://www.unwomen.
org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2018/global-safety-frameworkin-rural-spaces-influenced-by-tea-sector-compressed.
pdf?la=en&vs=4245

31 IFC (2018) Opportunities for Women in Business A
Toolkit of Actions and Strategies for Oil, Gas and Mining
Companies Tool Suite 4: Addressing Gender-Based
Violence in the Workforce https://www.commdev.org/pdf/
publications/Unlocking_Opportunities_for_Women_and_Business_IFC-2.pdf
32

ibid

33 UN Global Compact (2018) Integrating the SDG’s
into Corporate Reporting: A Practical Guide https://www.
globalreporting.org/resourcelibrary/GRI_UNGC_Reporting-on-SDGs_Practical_Guide.pdf
34 Vara-Horna (2013) Violence Against Women in Peru
and its Financial Consequences, https://www.giz.de/en/downloads/giz2014-0251en-violence-women-financial-consequences-peru.pdf
35 CARE International (2017) I know I Cannot Quit The
Prevalence and Productivity Cost of Sexual Harassment
to the Cambodian Garment Industry https://insights.
careinternational.org.uk/media/k2/attachments/SHCS_
Full_Technical_Report_March_2017.pdf
36 UN Women/ILO (2019) Handbook: Addressing
Violence and Harassment Against Women in the Worldof Work (p11) https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2019/addressing-violence-and-harassment-against-women-inthe-world-of-work-en.pdf?la=en&vs=4050
37 Trade Union Congress (2016) Still Just a Bit of Banter? Sexual Harassment in the Workplace 2016 https://www.tuc.org.uk/research-analysis/reports/still-just-bitbanter
38 IWPR (2017) The Economic Cost of Intimate partner
Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking https://iwpr.org/
wp-content/uploads/2017/08/B367_Economic-Impacts-of-IPV-08.14.17.pdf
39 IFC (2016) SheWorks: Putting Gender Smart Policies
into Practice https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/
de9a7ee8-940a-450a-bb19-eb452f9fa08e/SheWorks+Final+Report.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=lDhiP4z
40 UNWomen/ILO (2019) Handbook:Addressing violence and harassment against women in the world of workhttps://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2019/addressing-violence-and-harassment-against-women-in-the-world-ofwork-en.pdf?la=en&vs=4050
41 Workforce Magazine (2013 14 May) How Much Doesit cost to defend an employment lawsuit? https://www.
workforce.com/2013/05/14/how-much-does-it-cost-todefend-an-employment-lawsuit/
42 Workforce Magazine (2013 14 May) How Much Doesit cost to defend an employment lawsuit? https://www.
workforce.com/2013/05/14/how-much-does-it-cost-todefend-an-employment-lawsuit/