More than quarter of women have been shown porn at work

Telegraph

08-07-2025

More than a quarter of women have been shown pornography at work, according to Unite the Union.
A poll of 300,000 women by the trade union found 28pc had been shown pornographic material by a manager, colleague or customer.
One in four women have suffered work-related sexual assault, with 43pc saying they have been inappropriately touched at work.
Very few incidents are reported, with respondents concerned they wouldn't be believed or that their job would be put at risk.
Some of those who had told their bosses what had happened said they had been accused of lying, with some perpetrators even promoted.
One anonymous respondent who worked in construction said she was sacked after reporting that she was sexually harassed by her manager for several months.
She said: 'It devastated me and drove me away from working in the construction industry for many years.'
Another respondent who works in the food and drinks sector said she reported 'disgusting behaviour and sexual comments from contractors, which I had put up with for over two years and nothing was ever done about it'.
'Damning'
Unite, which surveyed women in 19 different sectors, said that construction, aviation, transport, food and drink, farming, trucking, warehousing and logistics all suffered from significant rates of harassment.
Sharon Graham, Unite's chief, said: 'The results of our survey are damming and show women workers are being failed by bosses. Nobody should suffer sexual harassment in the workplace.
'Every worker deserves a safe working environment and should feel able to report harassment.'
Since October, employers have been legally obliged to take measures to prevent sexual harassment from happening at work or and at work events. However, Unite's survey found that 34pc of women did not believe there was a zero-tolerance approach to this behaviour at work.
Ahead of the new rules coming into force last year, many companies sent staff on sexual harassment training courses.
One training presentation, seen by The Telegraph late last year, told staff that 'grabbing, groping, kissing, fondling or brushing against another's body' as well as 'sitting or gesturing sexually' were examples of unwanted sexual behaviour.
'Do not sexually harass a colleague,' the training document stated. It added that 'repeated requests for dates' and 'suggestive looks, staring or leering' were not acceptable.
Parliament's Treasury committee last year raised concerns that women working in finance were afraid to speak out about abuses in the workplace because of perceptions that the City is still a 'man's world'.