Every week, the headquarters of Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) of Ibiza receives at least one case of sexual harassment in the workplace, says Consuelo Lopez, secretary general of this union in the Pitiusas. “Many workers arrive saying that they have been touched, they have had comments, they have been forced…. What happens is that most cases of abuse or sexual harassment at work are not reported for fear of losing that job“, continues the unionist, who indicates that cases such as the one that was made public this weekend (a man arrested for sexually harassing an employee in a hotel on Ibiza) are a minority. Lopez is convinced that “there is not a single woman” who has not endured at work, at least, some comment or proposition out of place or unjustified touching.
In the same line Fernando Fernandez, secretary general of the General Union of Workers (UGT) in the Pitiusas: “We get many workers with these cases, but they fear losing their jobs. It is very sad”. Fernandez also points out that most of the cases are not reported, something he encourages to do. If not at a police station or in court, at least through the worker’s council or the personnel delegate. “If they don’t have one, they should contact the union, which will lodge a complaint on their behalf,” says Fernandez.
The general secretary on Ibiza and Formentera of Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), Enrique Lorenzo, however, doubts that fear of losing their job given “the situation” of this year in which, he says, “there is work”. The trade unionist points out that the sexual harassment cases should be reported, but qualifies that these are situations “that border on the red line” and that, in addition, they are “complicated” since it is usually “the word of one against the other”.
Sexual harassment and abuse are on the rise
López highlights a fact about the hotel industry on Ibiza: “Many more women than men work in these establishments, but men are the majority in positions of responsibility”. The secretary general of CCOO regrets that with the entry of the new generations in the work environment the problem is not being reduced, but quite the opposite: “Cases of sexual harassment of women are increasing in all areas, also in the workplace. It’s scary.
“Practically all of them arrive quite traumatized, after having gone through a real ordeal and thinking that it is going to be complicated to prove it,” says López, who explains that the first thing she usually does is to send them to the Office for the Attention of Victims of Crime. “The first thing they have to do is to be aware that they are victims,” insists the secretary general of Comisiones, who stresses that companies, when they become aware of these cases, tend to turn a blind eye, to do nothing. “Some have taken a good slap on the write in court when it has been shown that the company was aware and consented to these cases,” continues Lopez, who insists that these abuses and sexual harassment in the workplace “destroy” women who suffer them.
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