Workers do not report violence for fear of reprisals and lack of protocols

Feminist movements have managed to get more women to denounce the violence that lives, but public and private institutions need to do their part. “It is important that in our labor contracts, but also in the social pact, we have a guarantee of non-retaliation,” says Carolina Rivas Herrera, a researcher at El Colegio de México (El Colmex).

90% of women victims of violence do not receive support, do not file complaints or complaints, according to the National Survey on the Dynamics of Household Relations (Endireh). They do not do it because “they believe it was something without such importance, but also because the institutional mechanisms to do so without receiving reprisals do not exist or have not been strengthened,” according to the same research, says the specialist in labor economics and development economics. .

It is November 25 we return to International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, with a cumulative of 695 femicides in 2022, until last September. The most recent figures from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) also show 2,136 intentional murders of women.

In 2021, at least 7.9 million women experienced workplace violence, according to Endireh. The problem grew 44%, since in 2016 more than 5.5 million reported having suffered some type of aggression in this area.

However, even if the violence is committed in spaces outside of work, its effects are not separate and sometimes the aggressions that women live on one side feed those who experience on the other.

The highest cost we pay for this is the loss of life, 10 daily femicides in Mexico, estimates the United Nations Organization (UN). But first, there is a long road of damages that are also economic and labor, for this reason the issue also concerns the companies.

Reasons to get involved in the topic

“Intimate partner violence and sexual violence are the result of factors that occur at the individual, family, community and social levels that interact with each other,” says the World Health Organization (OMS).

One of those factors, he adds, is “women’s limited access to paid employment.” In other words, what happens in the workplace has repercussions in the private sphere.

In Mexico, refusal to hire or dismissal due to pregnancy is the main complaint that the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (Conapred) continues to receive. When a company leaves a woman out for this reason, it contributes to her being violated at home, since economic dependence prevents them from being able to get out of that situation.

Los labor rights they have a human rights perspective in general, but perhaps to a greater degree for women, considers Carolin Rivas. “In other countries probably the main battle is to close the wage gap or break the glass ceiling. In Mexico, as in many of Latin America, we must raise our voices because we are risking our lives”.

This does not mean that in our country we do not have these problems, on the contrary. Wage inequality between women and men reaches 33% in industries such as the media, according to the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (Imco). The point is that here not being able to fully exercise labor rights makes the path easier for feminicides.

But general unemployment It also has an impact on gender violence. A study by the US National Center for Biotechnology Information concluded that, “at the household level, it was associated with abusive behavior” by men toward women.

An important finding of the research is that the dominance that men gain over women is unlikely to be reversed when the economy improves. “Rapid increases in the unemployment rate increased controller behavior of men toward their partners, even after adjusting for unemployment and economic hardship at home,” the report states. Intimate Partner Violence in the Great Recession.

Measures that suit us all

“The culture of raising our voices, of denouncing, of being aware when something is not right has grown. And that is a great advantage and gives us a lot of strength. But the institutions must provide mechanisms so that they do not suffer reprisals for doing so, confidentiality mechanisms and protection to victims while the investigation process advances”, says the economist Carolina Rivas.

Again, citing the results of Endireh, “73% of women are unaware of protocols and care measures against violence against women.” Many times it’s because they don’t have access to the information, but it’s also because the mechanisms don’t really exist at work, she adds.

“This is also understandable because many women work in The informal sector So there is no way to proceed institutionally to reduce this violence and it is very serious.”

The General Law on Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence indicates how violence occurs workplace violence. And the Federal Labor Law (LFT), in article 132, establishes as one of the obligations of companies to implement “a protocol to prevent discrimination based on gender and attention to cases of violence and harassment or sexual harassment, as well as eradicate forced and child labor”.

However, many companies still do not comply with that order. They would have to do it because women have the right to live a life, points out Carolina Rivas. If that argument alone is not enough, add another: “For a person to give maximum efficiency of himself and be productive It must have all the right conditions.”

But if a person has anxiety caused by some type of violence, “of course it will not be able to produce the same. and that’s a economic loss for workplaces and for the entire country. Fighting for women’s rights is good for all of us”.