After the government presented its gender equality strategy for the fisheries, several stories have appeared in the media, including bullying, sexual harassment and abuse of female fishermen.
I have also received inquiries about illegal incidents against female fishermen.
It is a management responsibility to lead the way. Corporate culture and attitudes are a management responsibility to follow up. In addition, the individual employee of course has a personal responsibility to behave properly AND follow Norwegian law such as the Equality and Discrimination Act.
The stories in the media show that there is unfortunately harassment and bullying in some environments. It is emphasized that in addition to being unacceptable and reprehensible, these can be criminal acts.
We therefore ask the shipping companies to take responsibility and crack down hard on cases where harassment and bullying occur. Preventing unacceptable behavior by regularly addressing gender equality and culture in boards and in organizational work will yield results. Gender equality and how one behaves towards female colleagues must be on the agenda and discussed in every meeting.
The government recently launched “better equality in fisheries” and encourages shipowners to use the document actively in the work on prevention and understanding among members Open letter to all fishing boat companies and shipowners Your ref Our ref 20 / 8816-31 Date 8 October 2021 Page 2 Sexual harassment is unacceptable and prohibited under the Working Environment Act and the Equality and Discrimination Act. Sexual harassment is defined as unwanted sexual attention that has the purpose or effect of being offensive, intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or harassing to the other party.
It is the employer’s duty to take care of its employees. The employer shall organize, facilitate and lead the work so that the employee is not exposed to harassment and other inappropriate behavior. The shipping companies are encouraged to review their ethical guidelines regularly.
The board’s attitude and discussion about gender equality in the fisheries often reflects the behavior in the organization and must therefore be taken seriously.
I would urge my successor as Minister of Fisheries and Seafood to consider further measures that can be implemented to overcome the problem. This can be, for example:
Consequences for, for example, the fishing permit and / or the requirement for a police certificate to be a skipper, etc.
In addition, we have today asked the Equality and Discrimination Ombudsman to consider appointing a special ombudsman for women in the fishing industry and to establish a separate notification institute for women in the fishing industry.
We must take responsibility together. The fishing industry should be a safe workplace for all women – whether it is your own or someone else’s daughter. We all have a responsibility to intervene and weed out the “rotten apples” in the fishing industry. These rogue players are ruining the rest of the industry. It is especially important that the vast majority of serious companies together take responsibility for this. We must do EVERYTHING we can so that no one experiences this type of bullying, harassment and cross-border behavior.
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