To mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25th November, Shine held a well-attended breakfast event for employers in the Auckland CBD to talk about Stalking in the Workplace. The event was planned to roughly coincide with the passage of a new law to criminalise stalking, which passed the week before on 19 November. This law recognises stalking as a crime and gives stronger protection and support to people experiencing stalking.
- Read more about the new stalking law and Shine’s involvement in the Coalition that campaigned for the new crime of stalking in Shine’s blog here.
At the event, DVFREE Lead Mira Taitz outlined what the new Bill means. Wellbeing Specialist Leanne Musaphia shared her horrific stalking experience that spanned almost two years and culminated in Police recommending she leave the UK to be safe. Women's Refuge Research Advisor Holly Carrington spoke to Women's Refuge on stalking and on workplace responses to intimate partner violence.
Women who experience intimate partner violence are commonly stalked during and after the relationship. If they are employed, their stalker will commonly target them at work or while they are on their way to or from work. Stalking can be in the workplace in many different forms - in-person, outside or inside of the workplace, by messaging or calling – often continuously, by sending or leaving unwanted gifts, sabotaging work devices, installing tracking devices on a work car, hacking work accounts, or by damaging someone’s reputation at work by sharing private information or spreading lies about the person, and finally by using work colleagues to track and harass the person – often without their knowledge, or by targeting others in the workplace.
Those that attended the event left with a better understanding of both the degree of harm that stalking can cause in women and children's lives, and what employers can do to help support and protect affected staff and to hold employees accountable who perpetrate stalking. These recommendations for employers are all in the newly updated DVFREE Guidelines.