While violence and harassment can affect any worker, migrants and women are especially vulnerable.

Gender-based violence

Women workers are exposed to specific risks and challenges in global supply chains. Gender inequalities and social norms contribute to gender-based violence in the workplace and perpetuate a culture of sexual harassment.

In electronics production, many of the workers are young women, while supervisors and managers are more likely to be men. Women workers are subject to verbal and sexual harassment from male managers, threatened and coerced into sex to secure their jobs, hours, or wages.

You can read a case study here.

Working hours that require women to travel late at night subject them to high risks of sexual abuse, and women with family responsibilities may be subject to dismissal or loss of wages if they cannot take on irregular working shifts or care responsibilities.

Migrant workers

Migrant workers face language barriers, limited knowledge about their rights, and threats arising from their precarious status as immigrants.

Workers also face verbal and psychological harassment from supervisors who sometimes shout at them and use insulting language. Workers themselves are often forbidden to talk during their shifts.