Joyce MakuAppiah
Gender Coordinator of the Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU), Madam Joyce MakuAppiah, has advised women to be mindful of what they wear to the workplace.
She said because women do not work alone in theworkplace, they must know what they should wear to work.
“We are advising that because we are not the only people working in the offices, we must also endeavour to dress decently, but this does not mean workers should be harassed because of how they are dressed,” she said.
Speaking to the media at a three-day training workshop organised by PUWU with support from the Industrial Global Union at the PUWU Hospitality and Conference Centre at Kasoa in the Central Region, Madam MakuAppiahsaid the programme is aimed at equipping members with an understanding of gender and skills on how to integrate the provisions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 190, as a mechanism for mitigating the increase of violence and harassment at the workplace and in the community.
“If you think someone is not decently dressed, that does not warrant you to harass them. Everyone deserves to have freedom to work peacefully and safely in their work environment,” she said.
According to the Gender Coordinator, the training was organised for the union members, especially the executives in all regions to help them understand issues of gender and gender-based violence.
She said the training sought to achieve three main goals which are; imparting knowledge of what gender is and how they will be able to mainstream gender issues into the union programmes, to create awareness on the ILO Convention 190, which is aimed at eliminating harassment at the workplace and finally to assist the leaders to be able to educate their members when they return to their various institutions.
MadamMakuAppiah observed that there are a number of incidents of violence and harassments at the workplace, but because the attention is often on sexual harassment, other form of harassments which needs equal awareness creation is usually disregarded.
The Gender Coordinator said the workshop has helped broaden the understanding of the members on some of the things that have over the years been taken for granted.
On her part, the Chairperson of PUWU National Women Committee, Madam Margaret Hammond, said there is high prevalence of gender-based violence and abuse in Ghana.
She said out of ten women in the workplace, eight have had to endure various forms of abuse which is not only restricted to physical abuse, adding that most of the time, victims of such incidents remain quiet because of the fear of losing their jobs and the stigmatisation from society.