LRD guides and handbook February 2017

Protecting workers from violence and abuse - a union rep's guide

Chapter 5

5. Protecting workers from sexual and prejudice-related violence

[ch 5: page 55]

Gender, race, age, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation and religious belief can all increase the likelihood of being assaulted. To counteract this, unions have used national and international days of action to campaign against violence directed at particular groups of workers, and have been particularly active in addressing violence against women.

In addition, union policies on workplace violence often make specific references to groups of workers to reflect their heightened vulnerability. Unite’s policy for example calls for community and workplace action on domestic violence, disability hate crime, racist attacks, homophobic and transphobic hate crime, and attacks on young and older people.