Taking advantage of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, I would like to point out the role of mediation as a procedure within the cultural transformation we are witnessing. Transitioning this change from responsibility and social dialogue involves promoting mediated negotiation not only to manage conflicts, but also to disseminate and consolidate good practices in the workplace, regardless of the size of the company.
The Protocols for the prevention and action against harassment. 25N.
The Protocols for the prevention and action against harassment – such as the Protocol for the prevention and action against sexual harassment, harassment based on sex and other conduct contrary to sexual freedom and moral integrity in the workplace, prepared by the General Subdirectorate for Entrepreneurship, Equality in Business and Collective Bargaining for Women, which I will take as a reference in this writing - are aimed, ultimately, at establishing mechanisms that establish the way to act in the face of behaviors that may be contrary to the moral integrity of people, promoting respectful behavior. Let's see what place measurement has here.
When a company commits to the measures that make up a protocol such as the one mentioned, it expresses its express willingness to adopt a proactive attitude in preventing behavior contrary to the sexual freedom and moral integrity. More broadly, the objectives to be achieved are systematized into:
- Promote a preventive culture of behavior contrary to sexual freedom and moral integrity in all areas and levels of an organization.
- Explicitly state the company's zero tolerance for these situations.
- Facilitate the identification of the behaviors that constitute sexual harassment and harassment based on sex, in its different modalities.
- Implement a simple, fast, accessible and confidential procedure that allows victims to make a report about what they are suffering.
- Investigate complaints in this regard internally, quickly, quickly and confidentially in order to determine whether a harassment situation has occurred in the company.
- Punish, where appropriate, the aggressor and compensate the victim, facilitating, in turn, access to the psychological and social support they need.
Raising staff awareness about a respectful work environment
To raise awareness among workers about the importance of maintaining a work environment that respects sexual freedom, moral integrity and the dignity of people, promoting values of equality, it is also advisable to carry out periodic training actions, conferences or awareness campaigns whose contents invite reflection on the effects that behaviors identified as violent produce on people, the organization and society.
The analysis is also promoted regarding reactive measures against aggressive and violent behavior within the company, as well as the procedures to channel any claims that may arise.
What do the instruction and monitoring commissions consist of?
To put this into practice, training and monitoring committees are formed for cases of sexual and gender-based harassment made up of company personnel. Among its members, it is recommended that the person in charge of the company be found, as well as other people who hold positions of responsibility.
All of them must act, exhaustively, with impartiality with respect to the affected parties, an indispensable and fundamental condition that, however, entails certain complexity for the business organization and its members. For this reason, in the aforementioned Protocol, it is also noted that, additionally, the company may request the hiring of external people who may accompany the instruction of the procedure.
It is at this stage of the procedure where the use of mediating tools for contextualizing the conflict that quickly facilitate an objective vision of the events may be relevant, giving them a restorative and reparative meaning for the future. These tools enable, from neutrality, a deep analysis of the context of the conflict, facilitating the detection of cognitive distortions and prejudices on which it is convenient to reflect to facilitate cultural transformations towards more peaceful, evolved interactions characteristic of our times.
The preliminary phase or informal procedure indicated in the protocol - always voluntary for those affected - offers the opportunity to interrupt the harassment situation urgently and effectively, reaching a solution accepted by the parties involved and avoiding judicial proceedings. Said informal procedure, lasting a maximum of a few working days from receipt of the claim, makes it possible to interview those affected, delve into the facts in some detail from a neutral perspective and request external advice, where appropriate.
The procedure to follow to protect victims
It is an agile, effective procedure that protects, in any case, the privacy, confidentiality and dignity of the affected people, allowing, however, to delve deeper into the facts. If after it it is concluded that there are indications of sexual harassment or harassment based on sex or other conduct contrary to sexual freedom and moral integrity, the pertinent measures are urgently continued.
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