{"id":524516,"date":"2025-07-09T12:43:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T11:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=524516"},"modified":"2025-07-10T09:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T08:38:17","slug":"survey-reveals-shocking-culture-of-sexual-harassment-in-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/health-and-safety\/mind-matters\/survey-reveals-shocking-culture-of-sexual-harassment-in-construction-09-07-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Survey reveals &#8216;shocking&#8217; culture of sexual harassment in construction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A major union has called for mandatory sexual harassment training after a third of women said they suffered sexual assault at work.<\/p>\n<p>A survey by Unite the union found that 31 per cent of women working in construction had been sexually assaulted at work, with a further 17 per cent saying they had been victims of sexual coercion.<\/p>\n<p>Sexual coercion is when a person pressures, tricks, threatens, or manipulates someone into engaging in sexual activity without genuine consent.<\/p>\n<p>The survey came nearly a year after the Worker Protection Act came into law. The law requires employers to take measures to prevent sexual harassment from happening in the workplace or at work events.<\/p>\n<p>Unite said its research showed the act was not being fully implemented, and that workers were being failed.<\/p>\n<p>General secretary Sharon Graham (pictured) said: \u201cStaff safety should be among the highest priorities for employers in construction but the results of our survey are damning and show women workers are being failed by bosses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will fight every step of the way to stamp out workplace harassment once and for all. Every worker deserves a safe working environment and should feel able to report harassment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The survey also found 54 per cent of women in construction had been inappropriately touched in the workplace, while 65 per cent had experienced unwanted flirting, gesturing or sexual remarks, and 70 per cent had been told sexually offensive jokes.<\/p>\n<p>More than four in ten women were shown pornographic material by a manager, colleague or third party, the survey also found.<\/p>\n<p>Many respondents also said they did not report harassment as they were worried they would not be believed or that their job would be put at risk.<\/p>\n<p>Just 8 per cent of the respondents said the issue was addressed or tackled by management.<\/p>\n<p>Faye Allen, a chartered quantity surveyor and author of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/interviews\/the-culture-isnt-just-toxic-for-women-its-toxic-for-men-24-06-2025\/\"><em>Building Women: How Everyone in Construction Can Win<\/em><\/a>, which included extensive surveying of women\u2019s experiences in the sector, told <em>Construction News\u00a0<\/em>that her research and Unite\u2019s study showed the \u201centire culture in the industry is shocking\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf [harassment is] happening to both white collar and blue collar workers in the construction sector, that shows that we\u2019ve got a massive problem,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Allen referenced data from the Office for National Statistics that showed women make up less than 15 per cent of all workers in the construction sector, adding that there were young women across the UK \u201cwho are really interested in coming into the industry\u201d,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut when they get put into a situation where they\u2019re on site and they\u2019re not being treated well, you lose them,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Unite is also calling for the deadline for making claims in employment tribunals to be extended from three months after the incident to six months after, and for the Health and Safety Executive to treat sexual harassment as a workplace injury.<\/p>\n<p>Allen said sexual harassment courses were not a bad idea, but that tier one and two contractors need to offer the courses to SMEs and sole traders who work on their sites as the education is needed throughout the industry. She said courses were much more effective if they involved lived experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A major union has called for mandatory sexual harassment training after a third of women said they suffered sexual assault at work. A survey by Unite the union found that 31 per cent of women working in construction had been sexually assaulted at work, with a further 17 per cent saying they had been victims &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90643,"featured_media":439693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[578,577],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-524516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal","category-mind-matters","issue-online-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.7 (Yoast SEO v26.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Survey reveals &#039;shocking&#039; culture of sexual harassment in construction | Construction News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A major union has called for mandatory sexual harassment training after a third of women said they suffered sexual assault at work. A survey by Unite the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/health-and-safety\/mind-matters\/survey-reveals-shocking-culture-of-sexual-harassment-in-construction-09-07-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Survey reveals &#039;shocking&#039; culture of sexual harassment in construction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A major union has called for mandatory sexual harassment training after a third of women said they suffered sexual assault at work. 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