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A quarter of all women in the UK experience some form of domestic abuse. And this affects their position in the workplace. Celestine Laporte looks at how employers can do much more to help
Hitting home at work about domestic violence
Domestic violence is often couched in euphemisms. ‘They’re
having a domestic”, ‘It’s a private matter” or “It’s
family stuff”, but the light-heartedness of the terms belies the
serious nature of this often hidden crime.
A quarter of all women in the UK experience domestic violence either from
a partner or ex-partner at some time in their lives and two women die
every week at the hands of the perpetrator of this abuse. Scotland Yard
recently launched an advertising campaign to highlight the extent of the
problem.
For many people experiencing domestic violence, their place of work is
their only refuge and introducing domestic violence policies in workplaces
is something that many organisations are campaigning for.
“I think it’s critical to introduce a domestic violence policy in the workplace,” says Ranjit Kaur, director of Rights of Women, an organisation that provides free legal advice to women on issues including domestic and sexual violence.
“Domestic violence is often thought of as an issue that happens
in the home and doesn’t then affect the woman’s position in
the workplace, but there have been scenarios where through injuries a
woman has been hospitalised and not been able to come into work and so
it does impact on her employment situation.”
Karen Jennings, UNISON’s head of health, agrees, stating that a
more sympathetic approach from employers would help women deal with violence
at home, and such a policy would also benefit the employer.
“Employers must recognise that when a woman is experiencing domestic
violence, there are going to be periods when she’s off sick or that
she may need additional counselling. But if you can keep that woman there
and continue to pay her salary, what you will have once she’s gone
through the process of getting away from this dangerous person is someone
who will continue to be a loyal employee.”
The issue of letting employees know that they can seek help in their
workplace is not a simple case of getting the message across. Jo Kennedy,
a former member of UNISON’s national executive committee, encountered
problems when her branch tried to hand out information on helplines and
counselling services.
“We gave out bookmarks with the numbers of local organisations victims
could turn to on them, but some women said if they had it in their handbag
and their abusive partner found it they would get into trouble”.
The branch got round the problem by placing posters in workplaces and
women’s toilets. UNISON’s campaign against domestic violence,
Raise the Roof, of which Kennedy was instrumental in starting, has had
considerable success with introducing workplace policies, providing emergency
support through UNISON Welfare and lobbying the government on the issue.
Kennedy stresses that employers need to be sensitive to their staff, as
they will need time off, not just to recover from physical abuse, but
also when seeing lawyers, for court proceedings and to deal with their
children alone.
Once someone has left an abusive situation the problems do not necessarily
end. Contact with children can create problems as the father may ask his
children where the mother is and he will be able to find her even though
she may be in hiding.
Obtaining an injunction is one option for victims of abuse who do not
want their partner charged by the police, but still want to protect themselves.
However the cost of these orders, up to £2,000, can be prohibitively
expensive, particularly when some abuse victims have had their finances
controlled by their partner.
“At the moment, because of changes made to the legal aid criteria
over the last few years, a lot of women now fall outside the means-tested
criteria – if a woman is in employment, those earning are taken into
consideration,” Kaur says.
“If you’re trying to protect women then one of the things
that the government should be looking at, as a key commitment, is to enable
women to get these kinds of injunctions regardless of their means”.
To help overcome this problem, Rights of Women have produced “Domestic
Violence DIY Injunction Handbook”, a step-by-step guide to enable
women to obtain an injunction themselves, available free of charge through
their helpline.
However getting victims to overcome the shame that often accompanies
domestic abuse requires a change in attitude from employers, the police
and the judiciary, and also exploding the myths that surround it. As Jennings
says:
“You often hear people say, ‘She likes living with exciting
and dangerous men’, ‘She’s masochistic’, ‘He’s
stressed at work and she doesn’t know how to deal with him’.
Nobody is actually saying in any of that, 'It’s his fault' and so
generally speaking women feel deeply ashamed when that happens. It’s
not her fault – it’s the man that should be ashamed”.
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