Women workers in the construction, building materials, wood, and forestry industries operate in environments defined by physically demanding labour, fragmented subcontracting chains, high levels of informality, labour migration, and overwhelmingly male-dominated workplace cultures. Employment is often temporary, work sites are dispersed, and regulatory oversight is weak. These structural conditions diffuse accountability and undermine worker protection mechanisms. In such contexts, violence and harassment — particularly gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) — remain significantly underreported and inadequately addressed.

The adoption of the International Labour Organisation’s Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (ILO C190), ratified by 54 countries, represents a critical opportunity to confront these systemic gaps through a comprehensive, rights-based framework. The Convention recognises violence and harassment as human rights violations and threats to equality. Yet implementation remains uneven, constrained by institutional weaknesses, political resistance, and entrenched workplace norms.

Too often, violence is treated as an individual disciplinary issue rather than a structural occupational risk. Reporting systems are fragile, retaliation persists, and harassment is normalized as “part of the job.” Women workers — particularly migrants, informal workers, and those in subcontracting chains — face heightened vulnerability and limited access to remedies.

ILO C190 requires an integrated approach linking labour protection, gender equality, and occupational health and safety (OSH). Employers must identify hazards, assess psychosocial and gender-related risks, and implement preventive measures with worker participation. States are obliged to ensure enforcement, sanctions, and policy coherence across OSH, equality, and migration frameworks.

For BWI, the core challenge is not ratification alone but closing the persistent gap between formal commitments and real change at the workplace level. Convention No. 190 - reinforcing earlier ILO standards such as Conventions No. 155 and No. 187 - makes clear that a safe and healthy working environment must guarantee protection from physical, psychological, economic, and sexual harm. This obligation is not aspirational; it is binding.

Ensuring this right across BWI sectors requires decisive and systemic action:

• Full integration of violence and harassment prevention into OSH legislation, collective agreements, workplace policies, and management systems;
• Comprehensive and gender-responsive risk assessments that explicitly address psychosocial hazards and GBVH as occupational risks;
• Mandatory workplace policies and procedures, developed and enforced through social dialogue and active worker participation;
• Accessible, trusted, and protected reporting mechanisms, accompanied by regular training and clear information on rights and remedies;
• A transformative workplace culture grounded in dignity, equality, accountability, and zero tolerance for retaliation;
• Strengthened labour inspection systems with the mandate, expertise, and resources to treat violence and harassment as core OSH concerns.

Only a comprehensive, preventive, and gender-responsive approach — backed by enforcement and accountability — will ensure that all workers in BWI sectors can genuinely exercise their right to a world of work free from violence and harassment.

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