On 2 June, France’s Council of Ministers adopted a bill to ratify ILO Convention n°190 (2019), which seeks to eliminate violence and harassment from the workplace. As well as introducing a ban on such phenomena into law, it requires firms to implement prevention plans and training, as well as protection and compensation for victims (see article n°11188). If the bill is approved by the National Assembly, France will become the seventh country to have ratified the convention, after Uruguay, Fiji, Namibia, Argentina, Somalia and Ecuador. Unions in France have denounced a bill they believe only does the bare minimum.
How will the Convention be applied? According to a preliminary impact study produced by the government, ratification of the ILO Convention “does not require any changes to domestic labour law”. In particularly, the government report cites existing labour code provisions and the law of 5 September 2018, under which two “reference people should be designated to combat sexual harassment and sexist behaviour”.
Do you have information to share with us?