High Incidence of Domestic Violence in PH Affects Work and Workers, Study Finds

Quezon City (PIA) – One in five respondents reported personal experience with domestic violence (DV) at some point in their life, the Philippines’ first ever national survey on the impact of domestic violence on workers and in workplaces released today revealed.

An additional 20% of respondents knew someone at work who had experienced domestic violence.

Jointly launched by Philippine unions, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), Federation of Free Workers (FFW), Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO) and the International Trade Union Confederation-Asia Pacific (ITUC-AP), the Philippine online survey looks at the experiences of workers with domestic violence and how violence affects their work, attendance, performance, and safety at work, not only for those directly affected by the violence, but also their co-workers.

ITUC-AP general secretary Noriyuki Suzuki stressed that the survey, just like all the other union-initiated workplace surveys in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK and Turkey, “reflects similar hard data and evidence regarding the clear and strong link between gender-based violence (GBV), workers’ safety and work performance.”

Other key findings from the survey include one in five (21%) respondents reported experiencing various forms of domestic violence, including emotional/psychological (74%), physical (37%) and harassment (17%), mostly from their husbands (46%), wives (13%), partners (21%), boyfriends (11%) or girlfriends (6%).

Nearly 84% of those who had experienced domestic violence reported that the violence affected their attendance at work (being late, missing work, or both), the report said.

One in two (54%) of those who experienced domestic violence, reported that the violence continued at or near the workplace in the form of abusive phone calls or text messages (33%) or stalking or harassment outside the workplace (16%).

About 75% reported that DV affected their work performance as they were unwell (45%), distracted (41%), injured (23%) and tired (18%) from the DV.

A total of 62% of the respondents who reported knowing someone at work who had experienced domestic violence said that their co-workers’ ability to work were similarly affected, due to being distracted (66%), unwell (43%), tired (31%), or injured from the domestic violence (27%).

Domestic violence also affected the well-being of other employees. Over 55% of respondents said that co-workers were stressed or concerned about the abusive situation (34%), their work load increased, their schedules were changed (15%), or caused conflict and tension with co-workers (14%).

One in three respondents (34%) who had experienced domestic violence reported that their abuser was employed in the same workplace.

Nearly 74% of respondents who reported knowing someone at work who had experienced DV reported that their co-worker’s DV experience affected them [respondents], too – they were stressed or concerned about the abusive situation (45%), DV caused conflict and tension between them (19%), and their work was affected, e.g., increased workload (15%).

One in two (53%) of those who had experienced DV discussed the violence with somebody at work; with co-workers (88%), managers/supervisors (51%), union (38%), or human resources (35%). “Privacy” (40%), “fear of being judged” (22%), or “felt embarrassed or ashamed” (18%) were major reasons for not disclosing their experience with anyone at work.

Worse, one in ten (10%) of domestic violence victims indicated they had lost their job as a result of DV, while one in five (21%) experienced discrimination from the employer as a result of discussing their DV experience.

Of the domestic workers (kasambahay) respondents, 30% had personally experienced various forms of abuse either from current or former employers or member of their household, often in the form of psychological or emotional abuse (e.g., calling names), sexual and physical abuse, harassment and coercion. Some respondents have been abused both at home (by family) and by their employers.

“The results of this study are loud and clear – domestic violence is a workplace issue, with significant costs to employers in terms of decreased or lost productivity, poor performance, tardiness, absenteeism, employee turnover, safety hazards for those directly affected and co-workers,”said Suzuki.

“There could be huge gains for workplaces for promoting GBV (including domestic violence) prevention, workers’ safety and protecting and assisting employees experiencing domestic violence,” added Suzuki.

The Philippine study is part of the larger initiative to contribute to the international knowledge base on this issue. “The Philippines can be proud of having, the most comprehensive laws on violence against women and on Domestic Workers, and still the only one in the region to have ratified ILO Convention 189 on domestic workers,” Suzuki added.

The findings further underscore the significance of this issue to both employers and unions.

Almost one-fourth (23%) of those who experienced DV applied for paid leave or just went absent without leave because they needed to deal with health/medical issues related to the domestic violence (26%); attend appointments related to the domestic violence, e.g., barangay, police (22%); attend counselling related to the domestic violence (21%); or attend criminal or family court hearings.

Respondents’ awareness of legally mandated paid domestic violence leave is low at 39%. 45% said they had received information about DV from government, from the union (30%).

The vast majority of respondents (92%), whether they had personally experienced DV or not, believed that DV impacts the work lives of those experiencing abuse.

Yet, respondents also thought that employers (39%) or unions (17%) are not aware when DV is affecting workers. One in four (26%) of respondents said that employers do not act in a positive way when workers report their DV experience. The rate for unions was better at one in 7 (15%).

Among all respondents, 92% think that workplace support such as paid leave, education, training, and safety policies for domestic violence could reduce the effects of violence on the work lives of workers.

“With this clear evidence, awareness-raising campaigns, prevention and protection programs, care and support for affected workers need to be broadened,” Suzuki said.

“The trade union movement is ready to work more closely with the Philippine government, employers, relevant agencies and partners on this new and exciting journey – to turn this evidence into policies and actions to improve the well-being of workers – women, men and their families, and build safer, healthier and better workplaces for all,” Suzuki concluded. (FEA/AFT, ITUC-AP/PIA-Caraga)