United Kingdom: government reiterates call for companies to improve support for domestic violence victims

On 26 August, the UK’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy announced that it has become a member of the Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse. With this move the UK government, which passed its Domestic Abuse Bill earlier this year, is calling on more businesses to sign up to the initiative. The BBC, department store chain John Lewis, supermarket group Sainsbury’s, and ride-hailing application Uber are among those that have already joined the EIDA, which provides members with access to resources as well as advice to help implement human resources processes on the topic, as the UK government points out in its statement. For firms, joining the EIDA represents a commitment to provide better support to staff that are victims or at risk of violence and, to this end, to raise awareness of the issue among their workforce. Paul Scully, the UK’s business minister, says: “For anyone experiencing or at risk from domestic abuse, I want to make sure help and support is readily available to them in the workplace.” In January the MP wrote an open letter to companies, earnestly calling them to provide better support victims of domestic violence (see article n°12309).