A survey by Unite has revealed almost a third of female construction workers have been sexually assaulted in the workplace.

The alarming numbers follow a survey of 100 female construction members by the union.

It found 31% of women construction workers had been sexually assaulted at work while 17% had been a victim of sexual coercion – when a person pressures, tricks, threatens, or manipulates someone into engaging in sexual activity without genuine consent – at work.

The survey, part of Unite’s Zero Tolerance to Sexual Harassment campaign, also found 65%  had experienced unwanted flirting, gesturing or sexual remarks, 70% had been the recipient of sexually offensive jokes, 54%  had been inappropriately touched and 41% had been shared or shown pornographic images by a manager, colleague or third party.

One respondent said: “I was sexually harassed by my manager in a previous job for several months. I finally built up the courage to confide in the company owner who reassured me that I’d done the right thing by telling him. He sacked me the following morning…it devastated me and drove me away from working in the construction industry for many years.”

Unite national officer for construction Jason Poulter said: “The results of the survey are very disappointing and clearly much more needs to be done to support women working in construction.

“All women in the sector must be protected in the workplace and feel emboldened to report incidents, as well as know they have the full support of their employer that harassment will be dealt with, but this is not happening.

“Unite stands with all of our women members who have been affected by this and we will work with our women’s officer every step of the way to eradicate sexual harassment from our sector.”

Last October, The Worker Protection Act 2023 became law. This means employers must take measures to prevent sexual harassment from happening in the workplace and at work events such as conferences.

Unite’s survey found just 25% of women working in construction felt their employer had done enough to promote a sexual harassment zero-tolerance culture within the workplace following the implementation of this legislation.