Eliminating Violence and Harrassment within the Work Place in Zambia: Lessons from Best International Practice (ILO COnvention 190 of 2019) and Nambia

Abstract

This thesis is on the elimination of violence and harassment within the working environment with lessons drawn from the best international practices and Namibia. This study focuses on the laws in Zambia with regards to violence and harassment and how Zambia does not have adequate laws. The purpose of this study is to emphasize on the importance of Zambia domesticating the Violation and Harassment convention that protects employees in a working environment from harassment as the convention gives a broad definition of who a worker is and takes an inclusive and integrated approach in its scope of protection. Furthermore, it applies to every sector, the formal and informal economy, rural and urban areas. The Convention equally covers all workers and employees irrespective of their contractual status. The objectives of this study include; the examining the best international practices on the elimination of violence and harassment in the workplace, to analyse the Namibian legal framework on the elimination of violence and harassment within the workplace and to investigate the extent to which the current Zambian legal frame work eliminates violence and harassment within the workplace in order to draw lessons from best international practices and Namibia. The methodology of this research is as follows; this research was a qualitative mode of research as data was collected from both primary and secondary sources which include, local and foreign legislation, textbooks, journal articles, internet source sand textbooks. The design of this research is blended between historical and narratives. The research couched as one which drew lessons from another country, in this case being Namibia and the international convention on Violence and Harassment 2019. The method of analysis of data collected was that of content analysis and focused on the context of the wording of the subject. The major research findings were that Zambia does not have laws on violence and harassment and that the definitions provided in the acts are not fit for the working environment as such they have to be contextualized as such leading to different ix interpretations in the working environment. Hence it is important that Zambia ratifies the international convention in order to domesticate and amend the current legislation that is there such as the Employment Code Act.