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Violence at the workplace: loss of respect for the worker with a special emphasis on women workers as victims of aggression at the workplace. What is the role of trade unions in the fight against this problem?

From 25 to 27 October 2017 took place in Struga (FYR of Macedonia) a seminar about “Violence at the workplace: loss of respect for the worker with a special emphasis on women workers as victims of aggression at the workplace. What is the role of trade unions in the fight against this problem?”, organized by YHACM - UNASM - UIATUM (Union of Independent Autonomous Trade Unions of Macedonia), with the support of EZA and of the European Union.

The overall aim of the project was to raise the awareness of the workers and employers for the phenomenon called violence at the workplace, an event that causes a loss of the respect of the workers with special accent to the female workers as victims of aggression at the workplace, its bad influence on the productivity of the companies, the situation in the EU member states and in the countries from the region via exchange of opinions and experiences.

The implementation of this project and the research of the psychological harassment from a gender perspective is a very important step in the direction of promotion of gender equality, particularly when it comes to the provision of equal possibilities and non-discrimination of the workers, especially of the woman at the workplace.

Additionally, these events have not been paid particular attention by the trade union organizations that should be true representatives in the provision of proper protection and safety at the workplace.

Therefore, there is a need for implementation of this type of research in order for initial empirical data to be obtained regarding these types of violence at the workplace. UNASM has been working for several years on this problem via offering an information services, support and directing the victims to the institutional procedures via the SOS line and the psychological and legal counseling in order for the victims to be able to recognize this phenomenon and with the assistance of these organizations to try to overcome it.

Slobodan Antovski-President of UNASM presented the project focused on the violence at the workplace and he put a special accent on the political situation in the country that makes the things even more complicated.

Mrs. Sigrid Schraml, Secretary-General of EZA, greeted the participants and congratulated the two new observers of EZA for this year, both trade unions from Albania. She stated that the trade unions have a difficult task to improve their bad image, but therefore EZA is committed to all the organizations that pledge to the principles of the dignity of the worker and his/her rights. She also presented the programme of EZA for the next period.

Levent Uslu, Vice- President of MEMUR-SEN Turkey, talked about the violence at the workplace and the situation in Turkey. Uslu talked about the problems which are more or less the same in all the countries from the region. The problem is bigger in Turkey because the women were included in the labor market rather late, and little girls were not even allowed to attend schools. In Turkey there are not still laws in this field, but MEMUE SEM established a Commission for the rights of the women. The commissions conduct researches on the basis of these problems in order to encourage the women to talk about their problems and to be more included in the trade union activities.

The representative of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy shortly presented the policies of the government regarding the violence at the workplace and the protection the state offers in such cases.

Konstantin Petkovski, PhD, professor at the University Ss. Cyril and Methoius had a presentaton  which included some of the theoretical aspects and some research results regarding this problem.

Samil Karisi, vice-president of BSPSH presented the situation with this problem in Albania and the activities the trade unions undertake. Furthermore, Slavica Janokvikj, representative of the Union of Trade Unions of Montenegro talked about the discrimination at the workplace and the problems it concerns in Montenegro. Montenegro has detected the problem which is legally regulated, but due to the lack of functioning of the system, this problem in Montenegro is solved via agencies for peaceful settlement of disputes with the assistance of arbiters.

Divna Zmejkovska, vice-president of UNASM had a presentation on mobbing as a particular type of violence at the workplace, the characteristics of the mobbed and the mobber and she also talked about the SOS hotline for providing support, information and help to the mobbing victims. The legal and social assistance that is provided free of charge by ESE was also presented.

An attention should be paid to the harassment of the workplace. The mobbing becomes more visible with the increase of the industrialization. The global policies do not take people in consideration, but only the profit. The representatives of the other trade unions also talked about the subject. They are: Jasminka Maric from NEZAVISNOST Serbia, Valbone Shehu from BSPK Kosovo, Valbona Kamberi from the Police Trade Union Kosovo, Njegosh Potezica from CATUS Serbia, Biljana Dulovic from the Independent Police Trade Union Montenegro.

The representative of the NGO GO- Glasen Tekstilec –Shtip, Silvana Penchova presented a case study where she was the victim of mobbing and apart from undertaking all the measures in accordance with the law she does not know whether this case is to be solved.

Mile Boshkov, representative of the Business Confederation of Macedonia and Rade Nenadikj, president of the Temporary Employment Agency-PARTNER talked about the need of cooperation between the social partners and new collective bargaining agreements to be prepared in order to tackle this problem.

The representatives of the countries attending at the seminar agreed that we share the same or similar problems. In all the countries there are more trade unions and loss of the membership. The number of the employees reduces and the number of precarious jobs grows, as does the violence at the workplace. The Labor codes, the Law on protection from discrimination and psychological harassment and the Law on equal opportunities are adopted in several countries but in order for them to be implemented the institutions must work. There is no professional stuff in the trade unions. The norms of the EU are not being applied. The media is not interested in this problem because it is not independent.

The work at the seminar was interactive and here are some of the conclusions:

  1. There must be radical changes in the awareness and behavior of the social partners and stakeholders that will broaden the horizon that will enable giving relative and accepted answers to the problems of how to make the inhuman forms of behavior a history (slavery, sexual exploitation, mobbing)
  2. Mechanisms, principles and indicators to be found for social partnership, open, brave and well-founded conversation where all the participants will be talking about the future and not about the past.
  3. Capacity building of trade unions for the improvement of the skills.
  4. A Gender equality and violence at the workplace Platform to be created
  5. Trade unions should be motivated, and not opponents to the activities and they should find compromise in the activities for handling this problem
  6. Right to trade union organization (membership) to be given to the unemployed, students, precarious workers, retired people and it should be included in the Labor Code in all the countries.
  7. Permanent partnership, developing strategies for the improvement of the social dialogue
  8. Putting pressure on the institutions
  9. To restore the education on this subject and to raise the awareness of the workers and the managerial teams in the companies.