263

of 500 signatures

To Rt Honourable Kemi Badenoch MP, Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy

Open letter text

For thousands of women across the UK, sexism, harassment and misogyny are all too familiar parts of our lives at work. As women and allies, we're writing to you to ask that as Business Secretary, you take urgent action to stem this gross misconduct.

Of Organise members polled, 60% reported being sexually harassed multiple times at work, while 69% have been sexually harassed at least once. Members reported being touched, propositioned, objectified and sexualised, being forcibly shown nude images – the workplace stories go on and on and on.

And what our stories have in common is that this behaviour is rarely taken seriously or dealt with appropriately. We believe more needs to be done to stop sexual harassment, misogyny, and sexism at work.

This is a widespread issue and cannot simply be dealt with on a case by case, or company by company basis – it's a systemic problem that requires government intervention and accountability.

That's why we're asking you to create a set of principles about how companies must deal with sexual harassment, misogyny, and sexism at work. Similar to gender pay gap reporting, we think the government should be holding companies to account and setting high standards.

Here are the principles we'd like to see:

1) Companies should adopt government-approved definitions of sexism, sexual harassment, and misogyny, to make clear what constitutes such behaviour

2) Training for all staff on anti-harassment as part of their induction, with regular "refresher" courses

3) A clearly communicated, safe, and robust reporting process for victims

4) Firm and proportionate disciplinary action for perpetrators of sexism, sexual harassment, and misogyny

5) A legal requirement to include details of upheld sexism, sexual harassment and misogyny complaints on references

6) Annual reporting on the proportion of upheld sexism, sexual harassment and misogyny complaints from large companies

You can see the full results of the survey to Organise members here: https://the.organise.network/surveys/sexism-at-work-survey/results/public

We look forward to hearing from you and working together to address this important issue.

Signed:
Ashleigh Barnes, designer and business owner

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Signers list

Donna
Emma Langan
Alex Buckley
Martina Schwarz
Rosalind Herbert
David Alan Luckraft
Matthew Johnson
Helen Folkes
Hazel Vanbergen
Yasmin Dubash
Gemma Hughes
Jan Roberts
Sarah Hanks
Jill Bennett
Susan Bunten
Jean Taylor
Fiona Mclean
Camille Raynal
Laura Fellows
Brian Mcfall
Carina Secker
Gemma Sheldon
Louisa Tamburro
Helen Kemp
Natalie Kirman
Joy Roberts
Kate O'Sullivan
Frances Richards
Maria Yosel Mouzo Insua
Jean Rochford
Mairead Mackechnie
Mr Rodney A Ridge
Ashleigh Barnes
Deborah Jane Neave
Lucy Robinson
Emma Major
Lindsay Ferguson
Samantha Cooch
Sian Murray
Ann Bloxwich
Elaine Hickling
Elaine Armstrong
Liz Brereton
Gemma Cowin
Caro Urquhart
Anne Anne Wyatt
Rachel Steele
Maggie D’Silva
Maria Schunter
Cathleen Carstens

Hold Companies Accountable for Sexism, Sexual Harassment, and Misogyny in the Workplace.

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