Ensuring protection against violence and harassment at work is particularly crucial for young workers who make up 77 per cent of informal employment especially in developing and emerging countries (International Labour Organization, 2018). Youth in informal employment account for 83 per cent of the total working youth globally (International Labour Organization, 2017).
I am excited to share my PhD thesis, which seeks to offer literature and primary analytics on workplace violence and harassment among young workers in Ghana’s informal sectors.
A cross-regional design was used for the study. Quantitative data was collected using a structured questionnaire. 400 young workers aged between 15 and 35 years old in the Ghana informal sector were sampled. A total of 100 samples from each of the four regions (Greater Accra, Ashanti, Northern and the Western regions of Ghana). In addition, qualitative data were collected through Focus Group Discussion done with important groups in different informal sectors. The quantitative data were analyzed using a Google spreadsheet and SPSS.
The major findings based on the data provided and analyzed show that there is a larger percentage of female workers in the Ghana informal sector than their male counterparts and a majority of them are between the ages of 20 to 35 years and mostly work as apprentices or volunteers. The data gathered indicates that emotional abuse such as insults, name-calling, hurling of nasty and hurtful sarcasm, and put down jokes are mostly experienced by the class of young people working in the Ghanaian informal sector. Some other ranges of physical abuse are not left out in their day-to-day experiences. Similarly, other forms of workplace violence and harassment discovered include the denial of rights to opinion, freedom of expression and lack of right to a fair hearing. On the other hand, the issue of sexual hostility seems minimal amongst these workers, as only a few of them have experienced sexual hostility while at the workplace.
Nonetheless, a larger percentage of these workers have repeatedly been told sexual stories or jokes that were offensive. Similarly, a larger percentage of these people have experienced unwanted sexual attention from both co-workers and employers including attempts to be drawn into a discussion of sexual matters. It is worthy to note that only a minimal section of these workers have been body-shamed within their workplace environment.
Although this study has tried to provide baseline insights on the prevalence and nature of workplace violence and harassment in the Ghanaian informal sector, the limitation to it is that it could not cover other cogent areas needful for comprehensive examination due to time and financial constraints. On this premise, however, it is recommended that further research work should attempt to cover the following areas:
i. the roles played by co-workers and employers in perpetuating workplace violence in the Ghanaian Informal sector,
ii. the roles played by informal employers in addressing workplace violence and harassment in the Ghanaian Informal sector,
iii. the reactions and counter-reactions of victims of workplace violence, for instance, how do victims handle abuses within the workplace? Do they do the needful by reporting their experience to the appropriate internal and external authorities? Or do they retaliate through means readily handy to them, Etc?
iv. The attendant effects of workplace violence and harassment on victims’ productivity, physiological and psychological well-being, etc.
v. The gaps that exist in advocacy against workplace violence in the Ghanaian informal sector vis-à-vis the external regulatory mechanisms put in place to address issues bordering on workplace violence and harassment, especially in the Ghanaian informal sector.
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