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Harassment or Abuse
WORKPLACE CODE PROVISION: "Every employee will be treated with respect and dignity. No employee will be subject to any physical, sexual, psychological or verbal harassment or abuse."
Click here to access FLA Benchmarks for this provision.
FLA Year Two IEM Findings - Harassment or Abuse
* Please note that these findings represent the 1,595 incidences of separate noncompliance issues as found in 105 of the 110 factories subjected to IEMs in Year Two.
Click here for more about the way this data was collected.
Noncompliance with the Code provision on Harassment or Abuse made up 5 percent, or approximately 79 cases, of all reported noncompliance in Year Two. Click here to access a breakdown of Year Two reported noncompliance issues tallied according to the Harassment or Abuse benchmarks.
Almost 20 percent of Harassment or Abuse cases involved verbal abuse of workers by supervisors. Interviews revealed, however, that it is likely that many more verbal abuse cases go unreported in factories because workers are often scared to report verbal abuse to managers for fear of losing their jobs. In some regions, workers do not consider supervisors yelling at them to be verbal abuse, and so do not report it.
Sixteen percent of reported noncompliance with this provision related to workers being subjected to monetary fines or penalties for arriving late at the factory, taking a day off without prior notice, or losing sewing equipment. Eleven percent related to inadequate training of the management in disciplinary practices.
Sexual harassment was reported in three factories in Year Two. This low number seems to reflect underreporting of an issue that can be difficult for workers to communicate and monitors to detect. Like Freedom of Association, the FLA is making changes to its monitoring methodology to try to address such underreporting. In these cases it was noted that factories lacked procedures and adequate training to investigate the cases internally. Therefore, in Year Two, some companies helped factories develop procedures to investigate the charges against the supervisors and were able to settle the cases in a just manner.
Remediation for other Harassment or Abuse cases included helping factory management to develop proper protocols and arranging trainings to improve management's respect for workers. In India, where the labor law requires a sexual harassment committee to be formed in each factory, at least one company provided training and guidance to the committee representatives with a view to preventing future noncompliance.
Please click here to visit the tracking charts to review how various companies have worked to remediate these and other issues.
Link to:
FLA BENCHMARKS: HARASSMENT OR ABUSE
WORKPLACE CODE PROVISION: Every employee will be treated with respect and dignity. No employee will be subject to any physical, sexual, psychological or verbal harassment of abuse.
B. Benchmarks
- Employers will utilize progressive discipline, e.g., escalating discipline using steps such as verbal warning, written warning, suspension, termination. Any exceptions to this rule, e.g., immediate termination for theft or assault, shall be in writing and clearly communicated to workers.
- Employers will not use physical discipline, including slaps, pushes or other forms of physical contact (or threats of physical discipline).
- Employers shall not offer preferential work assignments or other preferential treatment of any kind in actual or implied exchange for a sexual relationship, nor subject employees to prejudicial treatment of any kind in retaliation for refused sexual advances.
- Employers will utilize consistent written disciplinary practices that are applied fairly among all workers.
- Employers will provide training to managers and supervisors in appropriate disciplinary practices.
- Management will discipline (could include combinations of counseling, warnings, demotions, and termination) anyone (including managers or fellow workers) who engages in any physical, sexual, psychological or verbal harassment or abuse.
- Employers will maintain written records of disciplinary actions taken.
- Employers will prohibit screaming, threatening, or demeaning verbal language.
- Security practices will be gender-appropriate and non-intrusive.
- Access to food, water, toilets, medical care or health clinics or other basic necessities will not be used as either reward or punishment.
- Employers will not unreasonably restrain freedom of movement of workers, including movement in canteen, during breaks, using toilets, accessing water, or to access necessary medical attention.
- Employers will not use monetary fines and penalties for poor performance.
| Harassment or Abuse Benchmarks |
Number of Noncompliance Issues |
Percent of Total |
| Progressive Discipline |
6 |
7% |
| Physical Abuse |
1 |
1% |
| Sexual Harassment |
3 |
4% |
| Disciplinary Practices |
4 |
5% |
| Training of Management in Disciplinary Practices |
9 |
11% |
| Disciplinary Action Punishment of Abusive Supervisors/ Manager |
5 |
6% |
| Record Maintenance |
3 |
4% |
| Verbal abuse |
16 |
19% |
| Gender Sensitive Security |
4 |
5% |
| Access to Facilities |
7 |
8% |
| Freedom of Movement |
4 |
5% |
| Monetary Fines and Penalties |
13 |
16% |
| Harassment or Abuse Other |
8 |
10% |
| Total |
83 |
100 % |
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