manual: women workers' rights and gender equality - International ...

At work:
The use of alcohol and drugs can increase the number of accidents, injuries, and death. It can lead
to absenteeism and can impair judgment and performance resulting in poor performance resulting
in poor work and decreased competitiveness and enterprise viability.
In the community:
Depending on the occupation, alcohol and drug use can directly harm the general public. For
example, work in the transportation sector, law enforcement, medical professions, fire service and
hazardous installations including nuclear, chemical and biological, has the potential for causing
great public harm.
What measures can be taken to reduce the risk?
Effective measures to reduce the risks of alcohol and drug use are often at no or little cost and
may include:
• Obtaining information from local or national organizations about the health and safety risks
resulting from the use of alcohol and drugs and distributing this information to all workers.
• Requiring all workers to report to work free from the influence of alcohol and illicit drugs and to
report the use of prescription and non-prescription drugs.
• Eliminating the availability of alcohol during work hours and breaks and eliminating or
restricting the use of alcohol and non-approved drugs during mealtimes.
• Providing information on enterprise and/or community resources available to help workers with
an alcohol and/or drug problem.
Violence
Violence - what is it?
Violence can be both physical and psychological. It may involve repeated actions that alone may
be relatively minor but cumulatively may cause serious harm. Violence ranges form homicide and
physical attack to bullying, mobbing, victimization, sexual and racial harassment.
Violence – who is at risk? Are women more exposed than men?
Sex, age and precarious employment are the main factors that increase worker’s risk of suffering
from violence at work. At work, women are particular at risk of violence because they are
concentrated in many of the high-risk jobs such as teaching, social work, nursing and other health
care, as well as in banks or shops. The continued segregation of women in low-paid jobs, while
men predominate in better-paid, higher status jobs, also contributes to the problem. Nevertheless,
men tend to be at greater risk of physical assault, while women are particularly vulnerable to
incidents of a sexual nature such as harassment. Younger workers are particularly vulnerable to
victimization at work due to their lack of experience. Precarious employment and job security can
lead to situations where a worker becomes a victim of a violent act, but does not dare to report it,
for fear of losing the job.
What are the results of violence?
For the individual:
Suffering and humiliation resulting from violence usually lead to lack of motivation, loss of
confidence and reduced-self esteem. As with stress, if causes of violence are not eliminated or its
impact contained by adequate interventions, these symptoms are likely to develop into physical
illness, psychological disorders, or tobacco, alcohol and drugs abuse. These problems may
ultimate cumulate in occupational accidents, invalidity and even suicide.
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