Rosa Estaràs Ferragut (EPP, Spanish) presented her draft opinion on the proposal for a directive to combat gender violence (see EUROPE 13098/11) to the European Parliament’s Employment Committee (EMPL) on Tuesday 24 January.
In particular, she calls for stronger provisions to combat harassment or violence in the workplace. “There should be minimum standards on cyberbullying in the workplace in the Member States [and] adequately resourced monitoring”, she argued. Estaràs Ferragut also emphasised prevention, calling for “continuing training of workers and employees so that any case of gender-based violence is detected immediately”.
She also pays particular attention to people with disabilities, pointing out, among other things, that “the procedure for reporting violence is often beyond [their] reach”, due to a lack of appropriate standards or information.
While the draft opinion was welcomed, some MEPs have already indicated that they will propose amendments. Vilija Blinkevičiūtė (S&D, Lithuanian) thus intends to include provisions on violence in telework or perpetrated by third parties in the workplace, job protection measures for victims of domestic violence and the establishment of collective agreements on harassment at work.
Sylvie Brunet (Renew Europe, French), for her part, intends to insist on training for company managers on gender-based violence, on the need to guarantee legal assistance to victims of harassment who wish to keep their jobs, and on the need to take into account other vulnerable groups, such as the LGBTQI+ community.
To read the draft opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/51s (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)