Almost two-thirds of young women have been sexually harassed at work, says TUC
Almost two in three young women have experienced sexual harassment, bullying or verbal abuse at work, according to a TUC poll.
However, most victims do not report it for fear of not being believed or of damaging their relationships at work or their career prospects, the TUC said.
Overall, almost three in five women (58%) have experienced harassment at work, the poll showed. The figure rises to 62% of women aged between 25 and 34.
Most of these cases were not isolated incidents, with 57% of women saying they had experienced three or more incidents of bullying at work. More than two in five (43%) had experienced at least three incidents of sexual harassment.
The TUC’s general secretary, Paul Nowak, said: “Every woman should be safe from sexual harassment. But every day we hear stories about the extent of sexual harassment in our workplaces.
“And we know many women in public-facing jobs – like retail workers and GP receptionists – suffer regular abuse from customers and patients. Sexual harassment and bullying have no place in modern workplaces.”
Separate research by the public sector union Unison recently showed that only one NHS trust in England provided dedicated training to prevent sexual harassment, even though one in 12 NHS staff had experienced such behaviour at work in the past year.
Meanwhile, the CBI, the UK’s biggest business lobby group, has been rocked by a series of sexual misconduct allegations reported by the Guardian.
The TUC alleged that some Conservative MPs and peers were trying to sabotage new laws to protect workers from sexual harassment and assault at work.
The worker protection bill, a private member’s bill put forward with ministers’ support by Wera Hobhouse, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, would
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