Cape Verde wants to make harassment at work a public crime to solve this problem

Cape Verde wants to revise the Labor Code to combat harassment in the workplace, recognizing that it will become a public offense and impose an obligation to initiate disciplinary proceedings, the minister of state and family affairs said Tuesday.

“The government, as part of the revision of the Labor Code, will strengthen the legal framework to prevent and condemn any type of harassment in the workplace, and therefore there is already an obligation at the level of social consultations to expand the regime in such cases. a way to cover situations of horizontal (…) and vertical harassment,” said Minister Fernando Elicio Freire, presiding over a conference on sexual and moral harassment in the context of work in Praia.

“On the other hand, in order to prevent the practice of harassment in the workplace, we are going to introduce an obligation to initiate disciplinary proceedings whenever an employer becomes aware of cases of harassment between employees or a superior in relation to his subordinates, as well as expressly recognizing the right of an injured employee to compensation and non-pecuniary damage in accordance with the general provisions of the law, without prejudice to possible disciplinary liability,” added the Minister of State, Family, Integration and Social Development of Cape Verde, in his intervention.

He also said that the number of workplace harassment cases in Cape Verde is “increasing”, but “unfortunately” the number of complaints does not reach 10 per year, as well as the “lack of figures and data” due to the difficulty in convicting “violators”.

“In Cape Verde, we have no idea about reality. The numbers are just beginning, and this shame must be fought. Despite the difficulties and the growing number of complaints, unfortunately, it does not reach 10 per year, which is even quite small compared to the reality that has been identified. The figures show that there are more complaints of moral harassment than of sexual harassment,” the official said, suggesting it was a problem that affects “especially women.”

“Despite the fact that they are small, the cases reached the General Labor Inspectorate, they were considered properly, but the supervisory authority can control only if a complaint is received. To take a decisive step towards gender-based violence, we had to make GBV [Violência Baseada no Género] as a public crime. We must make harassment a public crime so that complaints can increase and justice can be brought to an end by punishing perpetrators,” he added.

According to Fernando Elicio Freire, “strong legislation on this issue is not enough”, so he expressed the need to work “a lot” to prevent harassment, as well as encourage complaints, namely through actions to inform, educate and raise awareness of workers, employers, trade unions and civil society as a whole in order to have “more and more” knowledge on the subject and reporting procedures for prevention and reprisals.

President of the Institute for Gender Equality and Justice (ICIEG) Cape Verde (ICIEG) Marisa Carvalho said that this conference was aimed at raising awareness about harassment at work in Cape Verde: “We felt it was necessary to hold a public debate on this issue, on the one hand, to inform about the legal framework, about the consequences, about what to do and how to act, and above all, how to prevent, as well as warn people that a complaint is necessary to move things forward and be properly punished.”

The conference was organized by ICIEG in partnership with the Ministry of Public Administration Modernization and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

In March 2022, the National Union of Workers of Cape Verde – Central Sindical (UNTC-CS) asked the country to ratify the International Labor Organization Convention No. 190 on the elimination of violence and harassment in the workplace, problems that the organization fights. .

The convention190 dealing with issues such as violence and harassment in the workplace was adopted in 2019 and has only been ratified by seven countries so far.

“Everyone has the right to be free from violence and harassment at work, so government action is required to protect workers from these vices, especially women, including recommendations for change in this regard,” said Joaquina Almeida, secretary. UNTC-CS general at an international conference in Praia on post-pandemic social protection and “violence and harassment in the workplace”.