Sexual Harassment, defined as any form of unwanted and insulting verbal, written or physical conduct of a sexual nature with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, in particular when creating an intimidating, hostile, humiliating or offensive environment, is regulated with slightly varying definitions by law in all partner countries. According to the Study "working conditions in the European Union" http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/1997/21/en/1/ef9721en.pdf from 31.5.2010 cited by the Chamber of labour Vienna about 3 millions of employees are concerned by s.h. and about 12 millions by mobbing within the EU. The number of unknown cases is even higher. Statistics from the research "Violence against women: an EU wide survey" realized 2014 by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights . It shows the reported cases are higher in countries like Sweden (81% of women report experiencing any form of s.h. since the age of 15 whilst in Spain 50%, Austria 35%, Bulgaria 24%). These numbers do not indicate that there is more harassment in Sweden , but in the other countries women are more often afraid to come forth with complains as the legal way is seen by them "as a distant solution, painful or with little chance of success". The strategy of the majority of women in this situation is to avoid the aggressor or ignore it. Only two out of ten reported it to the immediate boss or sought support from colleagues. Very few went to unions or women's associations. The boss is the aggressor in the vast majority of cases. In this sense, it is especially necessary to promote initiatives and actions aimed at reducing this problem. In case of s. h. being reported, it is the responsibility of the employer to act. But it can be observed that either there is no employer complaint mechanism or grievance system installed or superiors and workers representatives lack the competence to deal with the matter. This usually steems from a lack of or insufficient quality of training, as well as general feeling of ambiguity when dealing with the topic. Thus, responsibles often fail to act and do not fulfill their duty. Victims persuade themselves that it is not true or start thinking about what they themselves did wrong. This is especially the case if victims are in a hierarchically inferior position and thus do not dare to talk about the issue. They try to deny the existance of the problem or fault themselves for its occurance instead of informing that the conduct is unwelcome and has to stop. The fear of losing employment or feelings of shame make it difficult to report the incidents. OBJECTIVES of the BE AWARE Project Partners and Public administration Associates in AT, BU, LI, ES and TR 1) to collect transnationally information on best practice especially also to integrate different cultural, generational and gender aspects on the issue ( important due to fact that we are living more and more in cultural mixed societies. Different cultures have a different understanding of appropriate behaviour and distance. These facts shall be respected in the intellectual outputs) - IO1 2) implementation of quality trainings (based on ftf and distance learning) for worker representatives, HR Managers, mentors, trainers and supervisors who might be addresed by victims (how to deal with the issue professionally and how to raise awareness in their organisation - IO2, IO3&IO4 - Standards for BE AWARE VET Training, BE AWARE ftf and distance courses for Systemic prevention measures and support in organisations, BE AWARE ftf and distance courses for Awareness in organisations) 3) promotion of adequate prevention strategies and implementation of grievance systemes within organisations (IO5 - Transfer Handbook) DIRECT TARGETS: Direct Targets: Employer representatives/supervisors/trainers/mentors and employees, Organisations and stakeholders in the field of work. INDIRECT TARGETS: employees MAIN IMPACT: The overall longterm impact of the BE AWARE project will be to reduce sexual harassment in the workplace by providing trainings on how to install prevention systems and how to raise awareness of staff in organisations. This will be achieved by the development and provision of distance and ftf trainings to improve competences in dealing with the issue in eduacational, training or professional workplace situations. The project will train 2 mentors per country transnationally which will multiply the competences to further 10 persons per country. Those will act as BE AWARE Mediators for the partner organisations and cooperate with the named associated partners on piloting and later sustainable implementation of the trainings within their institutional channels.
Be Aware, strengthening competences to face sexual harassment in the workplace, was a project funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ program in the field of Strategic Partnerships for Vocational Education and Training and was running for 36 months. The project consortium consisted of the 5 partner organisations from the countries Austria, Spain, Bulgaria, Turkey and Lithuania. The chosen partners related to the field of women work on the one hand and to the employment sector with the connection to relevant stakeholders on the other hand. In all partner countries, sexual harassment at the workplace is still a taboo subject and many organisations as well as those affected do not know how to deal with it and how to take appropriate measures. Sexual harassment at the workplace is a form of discrimination and a type of gender discrimination that includes any uninvited behaviour, comments or conduct regarding sex, gender or sexual orientation. According to “The International Labour Organization”, quoting UN figures, between 40 and 50 per cent of women in the EU experience forms of sexual harassment at their workplace. The aim of the project was to raise awareness of the issue and to improve the skills of managers, decision-makers, HR managers, workers' representatives and stakeholders in dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace. Following needs were identified: •The implementation of quality training for workers’ representatives and supervisors who might be addressed by an affected person. •The promotion of adequate prevention strategies within organisations. •To raise awareness and inform employees about the legal situation, their rights and expected behaviour. In line with these needs, the project was structured around 5 intellectual outputs that addressed different key aspects of sexual harassment at the workplace. Intellectual Output 1 aimed to compile detailed national-level information on legal measures and support services in each partner country. The content focuses on protection and awareness raising resources as these were essential for the development of the training designs for IO3 and IO4. Intellectual Output 2 focused on the creation of Be Aware standards in relation to the profile competences of the Be Aware mentor, a key figure throughout the development of the project and in particular in the delivery of the Face-to-Face (F2F) trainings. This intellectual output includes information on cross-cultural similarities and differences in terms of appropriate behaviour and hierarchical relationships in the work environment. The content addresses the fact that societies are becoming more and more multicultural, leading to new situations and challenges in the workplace related to communication, professional attitudes and thus the issue of sexual harassment. Intellectual output 3 focused on the training on "Systemic prevention measures and support in organisations". The training was aimed at managers, workers' representatives and HR staff. The professionals in charge of these measures will be responsible for training the rest of the workforce to become Be Aware mentors, i.e. they should raise awareness of the issue of sexual harassment in the organisation and act as facilitators and supporters. Participants of the training have been taught on how to set up prevention structures and effective grievance mechanisms within the organisation. Intellectual Output 4 focused on awareness raising and change processes in organisations and trained the target persons on how to create a positive work culture and work structure that counteract sexual harassment in the workplace. A video to raise awareness on sexual harassment was produced within IO4 and is now available in 6 languages on the project webpage and on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXA9R2sXvWU) The training design of IO3 and IO4 was tested at transnational training days attended by all partner countries. The piloting of the training designs was then organised and carried out by the individual partner organisations. The trainings developed by IO3 and I04 were complemented by an e-learning programme in order to meet the need of a blended learning format, which has been shown to be an effective method in vocational education. The e-learning developed within the project consists of 6 modules and is accessible at any time as an open source access via the Be Aware homepage. Intellectual Output 5 addresses stakeholders, decision makers in organisations and employers and provides them with a tool (Transfer Handbook) that features requirements and guidelines for a long-term implementation of the Be Aware method in order to establish a sustainable way of intervening and supporting in sexual harassment cases. The transfer Handbook reflects the lessons learned of all methods used and also includes the insights of the IO5 focus group talks, which were carried out in all partnering countries. Be Aware focused on improving the skills and competencies of all employees in the workplace, either as direct or indirect beneficiaries of the content and training developed by the partnership. The main target group though were managers, decisionmakers, workers’ representatives and other relevant positions since all the content generated under its framework will be aimed to establish new mechanism of protection and support in the workplace. Participants in the pilot phase were sensitised to the forms of sexual harassment in the workplace and learned about risk factors in organisations, prevention, and grievance mechanisms, and change management. The trainings improved their skills to deal with sexual harassment and to disseminate this knowledge as Be Aware mentors. Apart from the IO’s, the development of the Be Aware video and the piloting of the training courses, different dissemination activities took place in all countries. A website (https://www.beaware.eu.com/), Facebook account (https://www.facebook.com/BeAwareErasmusPlus/) and LinkedIn account (https://www.linkedin.com/company/be-aware-projekt/) were set up, multiplier events and focus groups were held in all project countries. Other dissemination activities such as the 4 Be Aware newsletters, newspaper articles and email signatures with project information were carried out to ensure that the public was made aware of the issue. In particular, one of the long-term benefits is free access to all IO reports and the free e-learning tool on the Be Aware website, which can be disseminated at all levels for interested stakeholders. The cooperation with different organisations and universities on this topic showed great impact and will ensure that Be Aware trainings are to be conducted even after the project ends.