Workplace policy on domestic and sexual abuse

Domestic and sexual abuse can have an impact on affected employees. This impact can extend to other employees and the organisation.  Employers have a duty of care for the wellbeing of their staff. 

What is domestic abuse?

Domestic abuse can take many forms, which may involve physical violence. However, often it will not involve physical violence but may involve a wide range of non-physically abusive behaviour including what is often referred to as coercive control.

The Northern Ireland government’s Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy (2024-2031) defines domestic abuse as: ‘threatening, controlling, coercive behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, virtual, physical, verbal, sexual, financial or emotional) inflicted on anyone (irrespective of age, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or any form of disability) by a current or former intimate partner or family member.’

Whilst domestic violence happens most often in intimate partner relationships, domestic violence which often includes sexual violence can also happen between parents and children, brothers and sisters, family members and grandparents, and same-sex or teenage relationships.

What is sexual abuse?

Sexual abuse is an act that often aims to express power and dominance over the victim.  It can take many forms, involving both contact and non-contact activity. It can include taking advantage of an individual's inability to give informed consent.

The Northern Ireland government’s Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy (2024-2031) defines domestic abuse as: ‘any behaviour (physical, psychological, verbal, virtual/online) perceived to be of a sexual nature which is controlling, coercive, exploitative, harmful, or unwanted that is inflicted on anyone (irrespective of age, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or any form of disability).’

Sexual abuse can affect anyone. While the majority of victims are women, men can also be victims. It often happens in intimate relationships. It can also happen in other relationships such as parents, grandparents and siblings.

Sexual abuse is very often perpetrated by someone whom the victim knows or trusts but it can also be perpetrated by a stranger.

Domestic Abuse Offence - domestic abuse is a crime

Sections 1 to 3 of the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (Northern Ireland) 2021 contain a domestic abuse offence for Northern Ireland. This came into force on 21 February 2022.

It is an offence for a person to carry out a course of behaviour which is abusive of someone that they are (or have been) personally connected to. A course of behaviour involves behaviour on at least two occasions. This is to capture abuse that typically occurs over a period of time in order for an individual to exert control over another. As set out above, abusive behaviour is not limited to physical or sexual violence. It can also capture emotional and psychological abuse and coercive control.

Two further conditions must be met for the domestic abuse offence to be committed. These are:

• That a reasonable person would consider that the behaviour in question would be likely to cause physical and/or psychological harm (hurt or damage, including fear, alarm and distress).
• That the behaviour is carried out with the intent to or is reckless as to whether or not it would cause such harm. This condition could be met, for example, where the abuser is repeatedly verbally abusive and demeaning towards their partner/connected person but claims that they did not intend the behaviour to cause harm, and the court is satisfied that the accused’s behaviour would cause such harm.

The domestic abuse offence covers a range of relationships. It includes those that:

• are, or have been, married
• are, or have been, in a civil partnership
• live together (or have lived together) as if they were married or in a civil partnership
• are or have been in an intimate personal relationship - this is intended to cover relationships between two individuals (including young/teenage and same-sex relationships), although the relationship need not be sexual, nor long-term
• are close family members

A close family member includes a person’s parent, grandparent, child or stepchild, grandchild or sibling (including half-siblings). It also includes a person’s ‘inlaws’ (the parent, grandparent, child, grandchild or sibling of the person that they are in a relationship with ie their spouse, civil partner, or someone they live with as if they are married or in a civil partnership).

Half-blood and step-relationships are also covered. Relationships where an adult has parental responsibility for a child under 16 (including foster and kinship relationships) would come under the parental responsibility exclusion.

It is important to recognise that domestic abuse does not only occur within an intimate relationship, but that it can also take place within familial relationships.

Domestic and sexual abuse and the workplace

Domestic and sexual abuse can negatively affect those abused and their workplace colleagues around them. For example:

• a person can experience domestic and sexual abuse while they are at work, for example, through threatening phone calls and emails
• an employee may be vulnerable to abuse and violence when travelling to and from work
• domestic violence can affect an employee's performance, attendance, timekeeping, career prospects and job security
• colleagues can experience threatening or intimidating behaviour from the perpetrator
• other issues can arise if both victim and perpetrator work in the same place

Developing a workplace policy on domestic and sexual abuse can help to create a safe and supportive working environment.