Measures to prevent gender violence at the workplace

The Ministry of Labor and Labor Development has initiated a strong campaign to ensure that in the workplace there are no acts that violate the honor and dignity of workers, whether they are men or women, for which reason it is requesting companies that require the registration or updating of their Internal Labor Regulations to include a chapter referring to gender violence. We must not forget that the Internal Labor Regulations is the instrument whose purpose is to specify the obligations of both the employer and the employee as a consequence of the rendering of a service.

In this order of ideas, we have that gender is defined as the way in which society believes that we have to look, think, and act as girls and women or as boys and men, so each culture has its beliefs and informal rules on how people should act according to their gender. While gender violence is defined as a type of psychological or physical violence that is exercised against any person either because of their sex or gender that negatively impacts not only their identity but also their social, physical, or psychological well-being.

Since every man and woman has the right to be respected in their dignity, companies or employers are obliged to protect the right to work in conditions of equity and equality, adopting the necessary mechanisms to eradicate existing prejudices and stereotypes of discrimination in the workplace, which is why the employer must establish the procedure to be followed within the company in the event that an act of gender violence occurs.

The procedure to be followed in the event of an act in the workplace considered as gender violence, must be contained in the Internal Labor Regulations, which must indicate not only who are the persons who can file a complaint, but also against whom a complaint or denunciation can be filed within the company, who will be the persons who will be in charge of carrying out the investigations, the phases of the investigation, as well as the time that will be available to conclude the investigations.

As we can see, employers must not only comply with the provisions of the Labor Code, but with all those rules that in one way or another impose an obligation that directly affects the development of the labor-management relationship, and they are also obliged to inform their employees what to do in the event that a hierarchical superior or co-worker violates their dignity and honor as a human being, either because of their sex or gender.