A Non-Governmental Organisation says female employees and job-seekers face gender based violence in workplaces in Malawi.
Speaking with Malawi24, chairperson for NGO Gender Coordination Network (NG-GCN) Barbara Banda said some male bosses sexually abuse junior employees and also take advantage of women who knock on their doors to seek jobs.
According to Banda, other abuses women face in the workplaces include being prohibited from going outside their office during lunch time and working without being paid.
She also noted that some women do not know how much they will receive at the end of the day as their salaries keep changing.
Banda said the situation shows that companies are not observing labor laws and are infringing on workers’ rights.
The NGO-GCN chairperson added that there is a lot to be done in order to bring awareness to the general public through campaigns and information dissemination.
“We need to engage ministries such as ministry of labor and manpower development and other organisation such as Malawi Congress of Trade Union as well as development partners in order to intervene on the matter,” she said.
Assistant Director of Gender Affairs in Ministry Gender Children and welfare Joseph Kazima said the government is working tirelessly on the same and asked victims of such violence to report.
Old women are busy doing sexual intercourse with young men working in these organizations to an extent infecting them with HIV. That’s why most of the workers are sick. Most of workers indurge in bad life especially when they attend meetings out side their country of resident. This behaviour should be checked. Otherwise, in the they are looking, they will all perish.