By IPS Correspondents
SANTIAGO, Aug 17 2005 (IPS)

Psychological harassment in the workplace is a growing problem in Chile owing partly to the limited availability of decent work, a global phenomenon that has been highlighted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

“People have been convinced that they have to put up with anything at work, even if it means suffering abuse or low salaries,” said María Rozas, vice president of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) trade union federation, in an interview with IPS.

The prevailing attitude in Chile is that “jobs are scarce, unemployment abounds, and that means accepting any work conditions that are imposed on you,” she added.

While this South American nation of 15.3 million people experienced economic growth averaging seven percent annually throughout the 1990s, it also witnessed an increase in unemployment, which rose to 9.2 percent of the economically active population in 2000. Last year’s unemployment rate was a minimally improved 8.8 percent.

The ILO, currently headed by Chilean Director-General Juan Somavía, will be holding a forum in Düsseldorf, Germany from Oct. 24 to 26 to address the theme of Fair Globalisation – Safe Workplace: Policies, Strategies and Practices for Sustainable Development. Over 300 participants will gather to discuss new methods and strategies to tackle the challenges of a globalised world of work in the 21st century.

At the last ILO annual conference, held in Geneva from May 30 to Jun. 16, it was reported that there are one billion unemployed people in the world today, while another 530 million fall into the category of the “working poor”, of whom 130 million are young adults.

The lack of job security and stability has forced workers to tolerate increasingly poor working conditions and even outright mistreatment and abuse. While some of these abuses are tangibly evident, there are also more subtle forms of emotional or psychological harassment which are equally damaging.

One of the most frequent is the phenomenon of workplace bullying or “mobbing”, in which co-workers, subordinates or superiors “gang up” on individuals to force them out of the workplace through rumour, innuendo, intimidation, constant criticism, isolation or humiliation.

Aside from the obvious psychological and emotional effects, like depression and anxiety, victims of mobbing can develop a wide range of stress-related physical symptoms. The effects of mobbing can be so devastating that the ILO categorises it as a form of workplace violence.

This growing phenomenon also has an economic impact, due to a decrease in employee morale and productivity and an increase in turnover, absenteeism and even the number of workplace accidents.

Women, the disabled, sexual and ethnic minorities and people with HIV/AIDS are particularly prone to be victims of psychological harassment.

According to ILO figures, over 13 million workers in Europe – almost eight percent of the economically active population – are victims of this form of bullying, while a European Union survey conducted in 2000 revealed that nine percent of workers in the bloc’s member countries said they were subjected to intimidation in the workplace.

In Chile, the phenomenon of mobbing has only recently become the focus of research. A study conducted last year by the Social Security Standardisation Institute showed that 69 percent of workers interviewed felt they suffered from disrespectful treatment, while 30 percent considered themselves victims of psychological harassment.

Sweden, Finland, Norway and France have all adopted legislation to prevent and punish workplace mobbing. But in Latin America, only Argentina offers workers the possibility of filing legal action in cases of psychological harassment.

In 2003, Chilean lawmakers Adriana Muñoz and Ximena Vidal of the Party for Democracy, which forms part of the ruling centre-left coalition, introduced a bill aimed at including non-sexual workplace harassment and corresponding penalties in the country’s labour code. The bill is still making its way through Congress.

Muñoz told IPS that the goal of the proposed legislation is to “establish penalties for conduct that either fosters or constitutes psychological abuse in the workplace, such as refusing to speak with workers or assign them tasks, among other forms of mistreatment that lead the victims to quit their jobs and subsequently lose all of their rights as employees.”

The penalties would be applied to those deemed ultimately responsible, which could be “the majority shareholder, owners or managers of the company,” she added.

Muñoz noted that in general terms, Chile has relatively strong labour legislation. The working week has been reduced from 48 to 45 hours, and workers enjoy such benefits as maternity leave for women and even paternity leave for new fathers.

Nevertheless, there has always been fierce opposition from the private sector toward any advances in the protection of workers rights, she added.

“Unfortunately, the laws are passed but they are not enforced. We can draft a spectacular law, but then it is immediately followed by the appearance of mechanisms that allow some employers to avoid complying with it,” she said.

There are no statistics on this form of workplace harassment in Chile, because it is a largely intangible phenomenon, “hidden in the subtleties of daily interactions between people. It can take the form of words, gestures, actions or attitudes that do not constitute physical abuse and are therefore extremely difficult to quantify,” Muñoz explained.

Sexual harassment in the workplace was only incorporated in the Chilean Labour Code this past March, after 15 years of efforts to have the corresponding legislation adopted.

The Department of Labour has received around 70 complaints of sexual harassment so far, with both superiors and co-workers named as the perpetrators.

Rozas concurred with the view that “once a law is created, employers always look for mechanisms or ploys they can use to get around it.” The solution, in her opinion, is to establish equality between social rights and civil rights.

“Workers’ rights are considered social rights, which means they aren’t protected with the same rigour or the same penalties as civil rights,” the trade union leader remarked.

According to CUT figures, there are a total of 400 million dollars in pension contributions that have not been turned over by private sector employers in Chile.

“This is money that employers deduct from their workers’ pay and then invest in other things without even consulting the people that this money legitimately belongs to,” said Rozas.

“In civil law terms, this would be considered theft and punished with a prison sentence, but because this is a matter of social rights, it is viewed as a debt, even though the workers have in no way consented to loaning this money to their employers,” she added.

Muñoz said the concept of decent work emphasised by the ILO implies a culture of respect.

“In Chile, we face the constant conflict between creating more jobs at any price or creating fewer but more dignified jobs. If the economy is growing, there should be more employment generated as well, but there should be an increase in both quantity and quality, meaning decent and fair employment that respects the labour legislation in force,” she maintained.

Rozas praised the role played by Somavía in establishing and promoting the principle of decent work, which means “acceptable working hours, without undue or unpaid overtime, decent salaries, the right to union membership and collective bargaining, freedom from discrimination based on age, sex, race or religion, dignified social conditions, and humane labour relations.”

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