PRESS RELEASE Progress on ratification of labor standards against violence—National legislation now!

Frankfurt am Main – On Thursday evening, the federal government approved the draft bill to ratify International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 190. This convention establishes the right to a workplace free from violence and harassment. IG Metall has long advocated for ratification and warmly welcomes the federal government’s action.

Christiane Benner, Second Chair of IG Metall, emphasizes the importance of this step: “The pressure exerted by IG Metall and the labor unions as a whole has paid off. The path to ratifying the convention is a path toward a violence-free workplace for all workers. To ensure that working conditions truly improve, the convention must be transposed into German law.”

IG Metall therefore calls on the federal government to transpose the convention into national law as quickly as possible.

Violence in the workplace—defined by the ILO as “any act, incident, or behavior that deviates from appropriate conduct, whereby a person is seriously insulted, threatened, injured, or harmed in the course of or as a direct result of their work”—is not a rare phenomenon. Worldwide, nearly a quarter of workers report having experienced violence in the workplace at some point.

In Germany, for example, one in six women has already experienced sexual harassment in the workplace.

To shape the workplace of tomorrow using the opportunities available today, IG Metall advocates for workplace contact points in accordance with the General Equal Treatment Act, which employers are required to establish.

The union and works council members also promote and negotiate company agreements that foster cooperative behavior in the workplace and, for example, regulate support and training programs for managers and employees, confidentiality, and related measures.

Further information and press photos of Christiane Benner