The impact of the pandemic
[ch 1: page 7]An online survey by the Rights of Women charity exposed an “upsurge” in online sexual harassment while women were working at home during the pandemic lockdowns. Among other things, the survey, conducted in the winter of 2020, found that 45% of women experiencing sexual harassment reported that they had experienced the harassment remotely. This included sexual messages via email, texts, and social media, cyber harassment via videoconferencing and sexual calls.
In February 2022, unions in Wales launched an investigation into sexual harassment at work, including a new survey. This followed an increase in workers reporting sexual harassment at work to their unions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
They reported colleagues making inappropriate comments about seeing inside their bedrooms or bosses making unreasonable demands of what they should wear on camera. Some received inappropriate comments over staff WhatsApp groups. Covid regulations resulted in others having to be in a workplace alongside their perpetrator, but in smaller groups than usual.
Wales TUC is developing a new sexual harassment toolkit, due to be launched in March 2023.