By Michae Oche
The African regional organization of International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) has decried the slow pace of ratification of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 190 on Violence and Harassment, warning that the delay is undermining efforts to protect women workers across Africa.
The General Secretary of ITUC-Africa, Mr Joel Odigie, raised the concern on Wednesday at the organisation’s Women’s Conference in Lomé, Togo, themed, “Trade Union Feminism and the Implementation of ITUC-Africa’s Transformative Gender Agenda: Two Years of Action for Equity and Social Justice in Africa.”
Odigie said there were still significant gaps in the protection of women workers against gender-based violence and harassment, despite progress in women’s participation and leadership within trade unions.
He expressed concern that momentum towards the ratification of ILO Convention 190 had remained low, stressing the need for renewed efforts by governments and trade unions to achieve the objectives of the convention.
“Today, it is very low. We appeal for more work in that regard because we have not yet achieved our objectives,” he said.
Convention 190, adopted by the ILO in 2019, provides an international framework for preventing and addressing violence and harassment in the world of work.
Odigie said ITUC-Africa had developed a sexual harassment policy and urged its affiliated unions to adopt and implement the policy to strengthen workplace protection and create safer spaces for workers.
He said an assessment conducted by the African Labour Research and Education Institute (ALREI), which received 57 responses from 51 unions across 27 African countries, identified inadequate funding, weak protection against gender-based violence, poor reporting mechanisms and limited structural changes as major challenges.
“We cannot build a transformative movement on commitments that we refuse to resource,” Odigie said, urging trade unions to provide women with adequate funding and institutional support.
He, however, said the assessment showed some progress in women’s participation, with 49 respondents reporting increased efforts to organise women since August 2024, while 28 reported documented growth in women’s membership.
According to him, women’s concerns were also increasingly being incorporated into collective bargaining demands at workplace, community and national levels.
He attributed the increased participation of women in union leadership to affirmative action, gender quotas and growing awareness among union leaders.
Odigie urged trade unions to pay greater attention to women in the informal economy, many of whom face economic inequality, precarious employment and limited access to social protection.
The Chairperson of the ITUC-Africa Women’s Committee, Mrs Gladys Branche, said the conference was assessing progress made since the adoption of the gender transformation agenda in Cotonou two years ago.
Branche said the committee had adopted a 14-point resolution, including campaigns for the ratification of ILO Conventions 190 and 189, recognition of care work, measures to address women’s economic challenges and a demand for 50 per cent representation of women in decision-making bodies.
She said women workers continued to face sexual harassment, bribery and other risks at border crossings, while gender gaps, reduced social spending and patriarchy remained major concerns.
In a keynote address, Associate Professor at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, Prof. Akua Britwum, called on trade unions to recognise social reproduction as a form of wealth generation.
Britwum urged unions to place care work at the centre of collective bargaining, advocate greater public provision of care services and examine patriarchal control of social reproduction and its effects on society.
She also called on unions to critically examine patriarchal masculinity and its impact on men, women and society as part of broader efforts to advance gender equality.
