Addressed to: APAV (Portuguese Association of Victim Support)

Gender Equality – Sexual Harassment and Bullying in the workplace

Introduction

In recent years, studies have been conducted to assess the level of gender equality in the
labor market regarding “sexual harassment and bullying”. Both phenomena constitute an
affront to human dignity, with consequences for society as a whole. In Europe, these are
problems which affect tens of millions of workers of both sexes, although women are the
main targets (Eurofound, 2015).
In Portugal these concepts are relatively new, even though the abuse has been around for
many years1. Once, these actions were to be kept as a private issue. Now, with the
globalization process and the various economic changes it brought, Portugal has gone
through many transformations regarding the labor field. Although changes were needed,
“advanced modernity, social production of wealth is systematically accompanied by
social production of risk” (Beck 1992: 19)
The risk of increasing labor flexibility coupled with market competitiveness and
deregulation has led to unstable labor climates, favorable to the establishment of
organizational cultures based on fear of job performance and uncertainty leading to the
emergence of hostilities, abuse and violence2.
This is now viewed as a social problem which needs to be addressed and specially needs
to gain more visibility, since victims of harassment have been proven to suffer both
physically and mentally from any kind of abuse.
The objective of this policy brief is to determine where does Portugal stand regarding this
issue, especially after various civic movements and international organizations having
worked to gain greater visibility, in order to prevent and combat these issues.

What is considered harassment? Sexual Harassment VS Bullying?

It is important to draw a line between what is considered sexual harassment and bullying,
since sometimes that line could be blurred.
Sexual harassment consists in a range of unwanted behaviors (of physical, verbal or non-
verbal nature) perceived as abusive. Although generally ongoing, sexual harassment can
also consist of one-off episodes, or episodes of an explicit and threatening nature.
Bullying consists in unwelcome behaviors perceived as psychological violence, which
are persistent or repeated3. Most of the times, sexual harassment involves bullying, but
the opposite does not occur.

 Sexual Harassment: Sexual Insinuations; Unwelcome sexual advances; Physical contact

and sexual assault; Quid pro quo harassment
 Bullying: Social isolation; Professional persecution; Intimidation; Personal humiliation

The first decision of a Portuguese court in favor of a victim of sexual abuse at work of a worker by a
hierarchical superior of the company Nestlé (Tavares, 2010).
2
Anália Torres (Coord.), Dália Costa, Helena Sant’Ana, Bernardo Coelho, Isabel Sousa Assédio Sexual e
Moral no Local de Trabalho, 2016 :60
3
Rodrigues e Freitas, 2014: 286
4
Salin, 2003: 1220
 Addressed to: APAV (Portuguese Association of Victim Support)

Methodologies

This research is based on cross extensive and intensive methodologies. A questionnaire

survey was used as a sample to represent the Portuguese working population. The
questionnaire survey aimed to know the dimension of harassment in the workplace and
its characteristics; understand the social perception about sexual harassment satisfying
the need to measure changes.

Results

In 2015, it was found that 16.5% of the Portuguese working population had at some point
in their working lives experienced a situation of moral harassment. Sexual harassment
had been experienced by 12.6% of the population surveyed. Women are the primary
target of these two forms of harassment in the workplace. On the one hand, 14.4% of
women had suffered sexual harassment whilst only 8.6% of men had the same experience
in the workplace. On the other hand, 16.7% of women had experienced a situation of
moral harassment, as compared to 15.9% of men.

In Portugal, bullying and sexual harassment are most commonly perpetrated by men
against women, this in turn shows us that there is a manifestation of male dominance.
This pattern may be at least partially explained by the persistence of a vision of what a
man should be about the imperatives of heterosexuality, sexual diversity, permanent
control and activity. That is, by maintaining an archetype of man who must in all social
contexts - including the workplace - respond to the image of a man with sexual power,
with the ability to conquer and multiply sexual partners and who makes women indicators
of gender, his success and prestige as a man. Like a vicious cycle, this way of thinking
goes into the workplace, which in the end will generate false beliefs and gender
discrimination practices, creating even more inequality.

Why does it happen?

According to Salin, three factors are to blame as to why any kind of harassment occurs at
the workplace:

 The perception of power inequalities – most perpetrators are superiors and managers
against persons at a lower hierarchical level in the organizations - making them a
manifestation of the abuse of power and instilling social vulnerability in the workplace,
because of the dependency that is created and maintained by the people benefiting and/or
taking advantage of it. (Figure bellow)
 Addressed to: APAV (Portuguese Association of Victim Support)

 The perception of little consequence for the harasser.

 The climate of dissatisfaction and frustration at work – poor working conditions, job
insecurity, low wages, bad organizational practices and hostile environments all
contribute to extremely serious forms of psychological violence that undermine the health
and well-being of thousands of worker

Where does Portugal stand compared to Europe?

According to the statistics in Portugal, both sexual harassment and bullying are very high
and well above the average for European countries (Eurofound 2015: 16).
In the index measuring adverse social behavior, places Portugal in a group of countries
with similar characteristics. These are countries where violence and harassment are not
regarded as a major issue where awareness of violence and harassment is low or
increasing, where there are low levels of reporting or denunciation of violence or
harassment by male and female workers, and, in general, where the policies developed
by governments and social partners are not developed to the level observed in the set of
countries which scored higher figures in this index (Eurofound, 2015: 54).

There are also factors which contribute to people not reporting situations of workplace
harassment. The reasons mentioned include: legislative limitations, citing a lack of
precision in the definition of behavior constituting harassment, uneasiness about reporting
sexual harassment and/or bullying in the workplace, due to the fear of reprisals, low levels
of confidence (that proceedings brought against an employer will be successful and result
in a decision in the victim's favor).

In conclusion, bullying and sexual harassment must be a priority! An alert for the urgency
of this situation is issued, since according to the latest statistics made by the Public
Prosecutor indicates that 903 inquiries were opened for sexual harassment. The growth
started in 2016 but since then, there has been an increase of 37%, which only 354 cases
have been charged.
 Addressed to: APAV (Portuguese Association of Victim Support)

In Portugal, sexual harassment is considered a serious offense in the Labor Code, but is
not autonomous in the Penal Code. There are many situations, including labor relations,
that are outside what is provided for in the Labor Code. (Aurora Rodrigues, prosecutor
and vice president of the Portuguese Association of Women Jurists).
Also, the Working Conditions Authority (ACT) receives few complaints. In the last seven
years no warning has been issued and in 2017 only two infringements have been recorded.
Gathering evidence or evidence for harassment-related procedures, particularly sexual
harassment, is a complex process at the level of obtaining evidence of reported unwanted
behavior. (ACT)

Recommendations

We recommend that work must be done towards making a better legislation, giving more
penalties, doing more inspections and having better reporting systems in order to protect
the victims. Also, since statistics proved that both sexual harassment and bullying usually
occur from top-down relations and in people with higher education, we propose to work
in a preventive way, with propaganda actions done in schools, companies, institutions,
organizations, as a means to lose the stigma and the taboo between both genders who
might suffer from this abuse.

Bibliography:

cite.gov.pt › destaques › complementosDestqs › Assedio_Sexual_Moral

cite.gov.pt › asstscite › downloads › publics › Assedio_Sexual_Moral_Local...

https://apav.pt/apav_v3/images/folhas_informativas/fi_assedio_sexual.pdf
https://www.cig.gov.pt/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Boletim-estatistico-2017.pdf

ec.europa.eu › newsroom › document

https://www.instituto-camoes.pt › cooperacao2 › avaligual_relat1115