Triangle take Gold for domestic violence initiative

Developed by ONUS, a social economy business that gift aids its profits to Women's Aid, the Workplace Charter on Domestic Violence provides businesses with essential advice and practical training to help and support staff suffering from domestic violence. It also enables employers to have their commitments to improving duty-of-care honoured with Gold, Silver or Bronze Charter Awards.

ONUS is a specialist training and consultancy service committed to working with employers to put necessary measures in place to ensure support for employees who are victims of abuse.

The programme has already enabled a number of launch organisations to develop an effective workplace policy for dealing with the domestic violence issue, 11 of those organisations receiving awards included one local Ballymoney organisation, Triangle Housing Association Ltd, picked up the Gold Award.

Speaking at the launch, Colette Stewart, Business Manager from ONUS, said: "Domestic abuse in Northern Ireland remains a serious issue with one-in-four women and one-in-nine men likely to experience domestic violence at some point in their lives. For employers this presents a challenge as many organisations wrongly believe this is a not a workplace concern.

"We know that developing a policy can appear daunting, but it doesn't have to be. We developed this Charter to help firms support their staff with simple steps like giving employees practical and confidential information about seeking help or exploring flexible working hours.

For further information on how to tackle this workplace issue, please visit www.itisaworkplaceissue.co.uk or contact 028 2563 2136.