The TUC today released a report – ‘Still just a bit of banter?’ – about sexual harassment in the workplace, showing that more than half of all women have experienced sexual harassment at work. Alarmingly, for respondents aged 18-24, this rose to around two-thirds showing that rather than dying out with the younger generation, the issue is actually getting worse. Like many other young women, I have experienced sexual harassment in almost every workplace I have been in, even with progressive employers. This has ranged from ‘banter’ about the size of my chest and other unwanted comments about my appearance, to being repeatedly touched inappropriately, propositioned, and being asked outright who I slept with to get a promotion – the idea that a young woman like me is capable of fulfilling the person specification for the role and interviewing well obviously being too much for some men to accept. The Labour party has always been leading the fight for equality, and we owe it to women members – and young women members in particular – to lead on the fight against this growing crisis.
Young women are particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment at work (and less likely to report it when it occurs) because they are less likely to be in secure employment, with zero hours contracts and agency work common. Even where they have a permanent contract, they often do not enough service to be protected from unfair dismissal. They are also far less likely, statistically, to be in a trade union which limits their chances of being supported through the grievance process or taking their case to an employment tribunal. Young women are also overrepresented in junior-level public facing roles in the health and service industries, where they may face harassment from third parties such as clients and customers. Sexual harassment is about power, and until we make steps towards empowering young women in the workplace, it is only going to continue to get worse.
Labour made great strides in government to stand up for working women – implementing the Equality Act 2010, introducing tax credits and the National Minimum Wage, and introducing statutory recognition for trade unions. The Tories, aided and abetted by the Liberal Democrats during the coalition years, have worked hard to reverse many of these gains – introducing tribunal fees which have priced so many out of justice, and doing their darnedest to stop trade unions from organising. Alongside this, so-called ‘lad culture’ is becoming endemic on our campuses, in our workplaces, and online.
Sadly, we are not immune from this – the Labour party could do with getting its own house in order, and implementing a rigorous sexual harassment policy of its own so we can lead by example. Labour needs to be campaigning for an end to tribunal fees, and for employment tribunals to have greater powers – including making recommendations to cover all workers rather than an individual claimant. We need to be campaigning more forcefully for agency workers rights and against zero hours contracts, pushing for more accountability for employers who fail to protect their staff from third party harassment (and stricter penalties for third parties who abuse or sexually harass workers), and putting young members at the heart of the campaigning we do. We need to be recruiting young workers into trade unions, trade unionists into the party, and embedding the party both into our union branches and our workplaces – all measures which will not only make us more relevant to young workers, but which will help us build for the Labour victory we need at the next general election to implement policies to make our workplaces safer and our country fairer.
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Charlotte Nichols is Young Labour’s women’s officer and vice chair of North West Young Labour; and a young GMB activist. She tweets at @charlotte2153
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