Precarious employment and self-reported experiences of unwanted sexual attention and sexual harassment at work. An analysis of the European Working Conditions Survey.

Mirco Tonin,Claudio Barbaranelli,Morten Wahrendorf,Sergio Iavicoli,Nico Dragano,Tahira M Probst,Stefanie Ritz-Timme,Antonio Chirumbolo,Cristina Di Tecco,Marvin Reuter

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0233683

Abstract

Unwanted sexual attention (UWSA) and sexual harassment (SH) are prevalent experiences for women in working life and often accompanied by poor health. Despite increasing numbers especially of young people working in insecure and irregular employment settings, there is little empirical evidence if such precarious arrangements are associated with UWSA or SH. To investigate this, we used a representative sample of the European working population consisting of 63,966 employees in 33 countries who participated in the European Working Conditions Survey in 2010 or 2015. Precarious employment (PE) was assessed on the basis of seven indicators and a formative index derived from them: temporary employment, contractual duration < 1 year, schedule unpredictability, involuntary part-time, low information on occupational health and safety risks (OSH), low pay (wage < 60%), and multiple job-holding. We measured self-reported experiences of workplace UWSA during the last month and SH during the last 12 months each using a single-item questionnaire. Multi-level Poisson regressions were used to estimate prevalence ratios for UWSA and SH according to PE adjusted for survey year, age, education, type of household, migration background, job tenure, weekly working hours, occupational position, working sector, company size, workplace gender ratio, and visiting customers or clients. 0.8% of men reported UWSA in the last month and 2.6% of the women. SH in the last year was reported by 0.4% of the men and 1.3% of the women. For both men and women, PE was significantly associated with elevated prevalence of UWSA and SH, in particular when reporting schedule unpredictability, multiple job-holding and low information on OSH. Our results suggest that precariously employed individuals may be more prone to experience unwanted sexual behaviour at the workplace compared with workers in non-precarious settings.

Highlights

Experiences of sexual harassment (SH) or unwanted sexual attention (UWSA) can occur in all domains of daily life, but the workplace is one of the most important settings
In Europe, every third case of SH occurs at the workplace [1], while the life-time prevalence of workplace SH for women ranges between 24–50% [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
Past studies demonstrate that experiences of SH or UWSA are followed by increased levels of depressive symptoms [9,10,11], symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder [12], higher blood pressure and poorer sleep [13], and higher rates of long-term sickness absence [14]

Summary

Introduction

Experiences of sexual harassment (SH) or unwanted sexual attention (UWSA) can occur in all domains of daily life, but the workplace is one of the most important settings. In Europe, every third case of SH occurs at the workplace [1], while the life-time prevalence of workplace SH for women ranges between 24–50% [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Workplace SH is an issue of discrimination and inequity, and a cause of impaired health and job-related disadvantages. Women who experience SH or UWSA are more likely to quit their job or to get discharged in the future [17,18]

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Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion