THE abuse of women, whether physically or otherwise, is a serious issue for the management of any organisation because it may impact negatively on a company’s bottom line, experts say.

According to a few influential female corporate executives, abuse of women damages employee morale, impacts careers, and can lead to burdensome expenditure in the form of high legal costs and punitive damages. The experts say abuse can also result in high absenteeism, low productivity and employee turnover.

Saundra Bailey, group managing director at CGM Gallagher Group, the largest insurance brokers in the English-speaking Caribbean, said given that the most important asset of any company is its employees, once the welfare of the employee is affected then the productivity and overall financial performance of a business will decrease.

“Of course, the frequency of violence against the employee and the number of employees who suffer at the hands of domestic violence and workplace abuse will determine the degree to which a company’s productivity suffers,” Bailey, who is responsible for overseeing subsidiary operations and product profitability for CGM Gallagher, said.

Medical doctors who come in contact with patients at public hospitals see a plethora of injuries suffered by women at the hands of their attackers, frequently a known male companion. One doctor at a public hospital in Manchester said that the most common injuries to women as a result of violence are done to the forearms and neck, both of which make it difficult, if not impossible, to work. He said women often try to protect themselves from blows to the head, and face, by using the forearm as a block. Other times, men will squeeze a woman’s neck in the act.

He said sometimes the injuries are so severe that it may take up to six months of recovery after surgery before a woman can return to work, and even then, the physical and psychological scars can be so severe that she may be unable to perform.

Bailey says this is often the case with female victims.

“Some of the negative consequences on a business include employee absence and low output since workers are far less motivated and capable of attending to their jobs when they are being abused at home,” she said.

She said the same thing happens with workplace abuse, as it impacts business profitability since employees who are abused while on the job are likely to become ineffective in their positions.

“It also adds another layer of liability for the employer since workplace abuse can put the company at risk for costly lawsuits and sabotage,” Bailey said.

Yaneek Page, founder and managing director of Future Services International Limited (FSIL) a legal funding and litigant support company in Jamaica, says she has had cases where women pursue legal action against men for sexual harassment and abuse, both within and outside the workplace.

While the awards can be significant for persons outside the workplace, when a woman is sexually harassed, the matter is entirely different. The award for sexual harassment in the workplace does not yet attract high penalties in Jamaica because local law does not address the issue, Page said.

“As it relates to sexual abuse, these cases rarely get to mediation,” she said. One reason is because often the nature of the accusation and the embarrassment it would cause is viewed by the company as a cost to the business’ reputation. In cases where the company has something to lose because of a threat to its reputation, Page said the settlement is dealt with in the context of it being a “wrongful dismissal” issue.

“These people are very motivated to arrive at a settlement,” she said. Often the settlement is money paid to the victim in lieu of earnings. In these cases, depending on how much the employee earns, the awards are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Another reason the settlement amounts are not higher is that the typical victim of sexual harassment and abuse is usually young, and unmarried. And in most cases, the younger the victim, the lower her standing in the company and the less she earns.

However, there is pressure to update the law to include sexual harassment.

Bailey says the signal from other Caribbean countries indicate that the awards are increasing, and costing companies more.

“What we do know is that over time, court awarded punitive damages have increased exponentially, not only in Jamaica but across the Caribbean,” she said. “This is especially important to keep in mind for the regional business owner which we’ve found to have inadequate liability cover.”

Another obvious effect of the impact abuse can have on a company is in the cost of insurance. Bailey says as employee claims rise, so too does the company’s cost for group employee benefits. Obviously, the more frequently a woman is the subject of abuse, the more often she will have to seek medical intervention, whether in the form of physical care, medication, hospitalisation or counselling.

“Once a business has high claims frequency, with average claims amounting to more than industry average, then an insurer is much more likely to charge a rate higher than it would a competitor with a lower frequency,” Bailey said. “This puts the company at a market disadvantage since its cost per employee benefit will be higher than another similar company operating in the same market segment.”

She said claims history is very important when structuring a group employee benefits plan and is one of the few variables a company can control in order to secure a competitive rate when they renew their policies.

However, Bailey says that companies’ human resource departments can help to reduce the risks of women being abused and consequently its effect on performance.

“A company that invests in its employees with specific focus on its human resource department will undoubtedly have more success in minimising the cost of violence against women on the performance of the company,” she said.

“An empowered HR department can select a comprehensive group employee benefits programme that offers employees access not only to after-care, but also to counselling services for the affected employees and their families with the likely end result an improvement in the well-being of the employee,” Bailey added.

In the matter of sexual abuse lawsuits, Page said companies should plan for the day when legislation will make it punitive to harass women. “Companies can be proactive and take the steps now and train the staff now before the law comes into effect,” she said.