On Monday 28 April the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica approved voted through a bill to ratify Convention 190 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on the elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work.
The ratification received the support of 37 deputies, while nine legislators voted against it. The bill will now pass to the Constitutional Chamber for review, which must decide whether the bill is in accordance with the Constitution before it becomes law in Costa Rica.
The passage of the bill has followed wide scale campaigning and lobbying of parliament by the Costa Rican trade union movement, including Banana Link partners ANEP and SITRAP, representing banana and pineapple plantation workers.
Known as the Violence and Harassment Convention, C.190 recognises the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment, and ratification of the convention would demonstrate Costa Rica’s commitment to ensuring a safe and respectful workplace for all, including women and other marginalized groups.
“In many parts there is harassment, violence and disrespect, with much persecution and violation of women’s rights. This is why we need this law.” – Sandra Rojas Godoy of SITRAP
The Convention
Adopted at the Centenary International Labour Conference of the ILO in June 2019, the Convention recognises that violence and harassment in the world of work “can constitute a human rights violation or abuse…is a threat to equal opportunities, is unacceptable and incompatible with decent work.” It defines “violence and harassment” as behaviours, practices or threats “that aim at, result in, or are likely to result in physical, psychological, sexual or economic harm.” It reminds member States that they have a responsibility to promote a “general environment of zero tolerance”.
The International Union of Foodworkers (IUF), together with its affiliated organisations around the world, played an active role in promoting and supporting the Convention, including Adwoa Sakyi of IUF Africa, seen here speaking at the 2019 conference.
Progress on ratification
The convention entered into force on 25 June 2021, and has so far been ratified by 49 governments, including Ecuador and Peru amongst Latin American banana exporting countries.
Like any international standard, the countries that adopt it undertake to incorporate it into their national legislation and to regulate its application in consultation with workers’ and employers’ organisations.
Tackling gender-based violence and harassment
In Costa Rica, as in the wider region of Latin America, the banana industry workforce is overwhelmingly male – on average 87.5% of workers are men. There is a cultural perception of women as primarily actors within the domestic environment and suited to childcare and household tasks.
The women who do enter employment on the plantation are generally kept within the lower paid, lower skilled packhouse environment. Field tasks are thought to be too technical or physically challenging for women. In addition to the occupational health and safety risks posed to women’s reproductive health by agrochemical use, women employed on banana plantations often have to face sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination and, not infrequently, discrimination against union affiliation as well.
A UN Women report of 2024 – On the road to an inclusive and safer world of work: Ratifying ILO C190 and R206 – provides an overview of the progress to ratification of ILO C190 and highlights examples of progress made by governments, trade unions, the private sector, and civil society towards ending Gender-Based Violence in the world of work.
Included among these examples, is the law that was enacted in Peru in 2019 to prevent and punish violence against women in private and public spaces. The law protects against workplace dismissal, allows for a change of workplace without detriment to employment conditions and permits justified absences from work.
Collective bargaining at the heart
C.190 puts collective bargaining at the heart of prevention and elimination of gender-based violence and harassment, as well as any kind of violence and harassment in the world of work. It calls for a comprehensive understanding of the root causes of gender-based violence and harassment and ask States to require employers to work with trade unions in hazard identification and risk assessment; risk assessments should pay attention to working conditions, work organisation and human resources management including key factors such as economic vulnerability, short-term contracts, and unrealistic work targets.
C.190 indicates that States shall identify, in consultation with the employers’ organisations and unions, the sectors or occupations and work arrangements in which workers are more exposed to violence and harassment; its accompanying Recommendation (R206) recognises that work in isolation (e.g. plantations), hospitality and domestic work expose workers to increased levels of violence and harassment.
Campaigning for further ratification
While 49 states may have ratified C.190, campaigning for ratification continues in many other countries, such as that launched in The Dominican Republic in 2024.
Meanwhile, global trade union federations have produced materials to support these campaigns, such as IndustriALL’s toolkit to support the implementation of the ILO C.190 and the Council of Global Unions LGBTI Initiative training resources around ILO Convention 190 that focus on LGBTI workers.
