Abstract

ACEVEDO, Doris. Workplace violence, gender and health: Manufacturing workers. Salud de los Trabajadores [online]. 2012, vol.20, n.2, pp.167-177. ISSN 1315-0138.

Workplace violence occurs in workplace social relations and is mediated by social class, gender and ethnic group relations. It is linked to discriminatory social practices, and forms of work organization aimed at increasing productivity at work. At the Center for Workers’ Health Studies-University of Carabobo (CEST-UC), we investigate gender and workplace violence, in collaboration with the School of Worker Education in Maracay, and obtain results consistent with other studies dealing with this topic. This is an exploratory and descriptive study of 249 manufacturing workers, 34% of whom were women, through the application of a self-administrated questionnaire, finding that the most frequent forms of workplace violence experienced by the workers correspond to changes in the organization of work and task content, followed by verbal abuse. In both sexes, the attacks mostly come from their immediate supervisors, but horizontal aggression is more common among women (24.7%) than men (15.8%). Consequences on selfreported health range from various symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, gastritis, depression, distress to deterioration in social relationships and absenteeism. Crying and problems in family relationships are more common among women. Affected workers do not resort to legal and regulatory protection resources, largely due to a lack of familiarity. Given its potential health consequences, harassment and workplace violence are psychosocial risks which should be better studied, recorded and addressed, to improve their recognition, prevention and eradication.

Keywords : harassment; gender violence; work.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )