Sexual harassment is at dangerous levels in the workplace, with a joint Reuters/Ipsos global poll finding one in 10 workers have been pestered for sex by a senior employer.
The survey of about 12,000 people in 24 countries found workers in India were the mostly likely to report sexual harassment, with a report rate of 26 percent.
They were followed by workers in China, with 18 percent reporting sexual harassment, Saudi Arabia at 16 percent, Mexico at 13 percent and South Africa at 10 percent.
In Italy, 9 percent of workers reported being sexually harassed at work, while in Brazil, Russia, South Korea and the US a total of 8 percent of workers reported being pushed for sex by a senior.
The survey comes as experts warn that sexual harassment seems to be on the rise in the workplace, with several high profile cases recently.
Hewlett-Packard chief executive Mark Hurd resigned last week amid an investigation into claims of sexual harassment, and Mark McInnes, former chief executive of upmarket Australian retailer David Jones, quit in June after admitting to “unbecoming behavior” toward a female staff member.
“Where senior people have tried to have sex with employees because they work for them, and not because they wanted a true relationship, it’s not simply harassment, it’s exploitation,” said John Wright, a senior vice president at market research company Ipsos.
The workers who were least likely to have felt sexually harassed in the workplace were from Sweden and France, were only 3 percent of employees reported such incidents.
Only 4 percent of workers in Britain and Australia reported sexual harassment, 5 percent in Poland, Germany and Belgium, and 6 percent in Spain, Japan, Canada and Argentina. Seven percent of Hungarian workers reported sexual harassment.
The poll also found that 7 percent of employees have been intentionally physically assaulted out of anger by a co-worker or manager during their work day.
India again topped the table, with 25 percent of workers saying they had been assaulted at work. Sweden was once again at the bottom, with only 1 percent reporting such an incident.
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