Protecting Victims of Domestic Violence in the Workplace: What Can Companies Do?

By Chiara Condi, Gender Equality Advisor & Founder, Led by HER.  Today the UN estimates that 2/8 working women are victims of domestic violence, which means that statistically speaking most companies will be confronted with the issue (even more so after the sharp rise worldwide in domestic violence cases as a cause of the COVID19 pandemic). Domestic violence is a workplace issue and therefore workplaces need to have policies and programs to best respond and assist victims in the workplace. Preventing victims of domestic violence also means protecting women from losing their jobs and facing financial insecurity on top of domestic violence, thereby preserving their livelihood freedom, and lives. Therefore companies need to have the appropriate policies and practices to accompany and refer victims of domestic violence (that includes paid/unpaid leave, security protection, job security, etc). Large companies such as Facebook, L'Oréal, and Vodafone already have put such policies into place. We will discuss how domestic violence affects women in the workplace and how companies can best address the issue to respond in the most effective manner The chat will delve into best practices and the report that I have worked on with Dentons, Kering, and Thomson Reuters that compares international best practices on measures to put in place to protect victims of domestic violence in the workplace. The report is accessible here: http://www.trust.org/publications