Unite has this week (8 July) released the results of a landmark survey into sexual harassment in the workplace.
The union, which has almost 300,000 women members, polled women working across all 19 sectors Unite represents on whether they had experienced sexual harassment while at work, travelling to work or from a colleague including in or out of work hours.
Disturbingly the survey revealed that a quarter (25 per cent) had been sexually assaulted, while eight per cent had been a victim of sexual coercion – when a person pressures, tricks, threatens, or manipulates someone into engaging in sexual activity without genuine consent – at work.
The survey, part of Unite’s Zero Tolerance to Sexual Harassment campaign, found 56 per cent had been the recipient of sexually offensive jokes, 55 per cent had experienced unwanted flirting, gesturing or sexual remarks, over four in 10 (43 per cent) had been inappropriately touched and over a quarter (28 per cent) had been shared or shown pornographic images by a manager, colleague or third party.
These behaviours cannot be accepted in the workplace and more needs to be done to protect women and stop these things from happening.