The cost of domestic violence

Should business play a role in combating domestic violence or is that a 'nanny' state gone too far? Most women encounter domestic violence on their televisions, sensationalised in a police drama or a soap opera.

An alarming one in four, however, will experience it for real, suggests Home Office research.

Dawn, aged 41, who has suffered abuse from two husbands, is one of those statistics.

"Work was a fantastic escape - I could get away from it - and would have worked 24 hours a day if I could, but I felt I could have done my job better."

Experiences like hers are driving an initiative to involve UK employers for the first time in the fight against domestic violence.

" The research aims to calculate the true cost of violence against women in the home "
Barbara Roche
Minister for Women

"There are costs involved for business," says Nicola Harwin, director of the Women's Aid Federation of England.

"But there is also an opportunity in the workplace to signpost women to information and counselling services."

In partnership?

In theory, it makes sense to include employers, but will business feel it has a serious role to play?

Last year, the Minister for Women, Barbara Roche, met with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) to discuss an "alliance".

The signs were promising - Digby Jones, director-general of the CBI, issued an effusive response.

TUC GUIDELINES

"Domestic violence can have a devastating impact and it is my belief that it can also harm business as the victims offer suffer from stress and low self-esteem," he said at the time.

However, when approached by BBC News Online this month, the CBI said it had "nothing more to say on the subject".

"Digby tends to rush off and do things without checking he has commitment from his officials," one person involved in the talks told BBC News Online.

Unwilling

Battling against economic lethargy and red tape, UK employers are wary of taking on any extra administrative burden.

Nevertheless, Caroline Spellman, Conservative shadow minister for women, believes there is a role for business.

"If it was another bad case of dumping responsibility on business, business will groan.

" We are not saying for a minute that employers need to become counsellors "
Rebecca Gill
TUC

"But if it is done in a carrot-like way, if you make business aware of what's available, they might embrace it positively."

In tandem with the government's own campaign, the TUC has independently issued a guide for dealing with domestic violence in the workplace.

"We are not saying for a minute that employers need to become counsellors," says Rebecca Gill, the TUC Women's Policy Officer.

"The majority of employers are concerned that their employees are okay, but some need to know that burying their head in the sand does not solve problems."

" One time I went into work and I had a black eye, a broken cheek bone and a hand print around my neck "
Dawn, aged 41

Examples she gives are erratic leaves of absence, calling in sick and women who don't have their mind on the job.

"One time I went into work and I had a black eye, a broken cheek bone and a hand print around my neck," says Dawn.

"[My employer] gave me paperwork to get me out of the house but nobody came forward and offered me counselling."

Death by numbers

Barbara Roche has also commissioned research by Professor Sylvia Walby of Leeds University to help raise awareness.

DOMESTIC ABUSE

"[The research] aims to calculate the true cost of violence against women in the home," says Ms Roche.

So far Professor Walby has found that adult women killed by husbands or lovers cost the country an estimated £112m a year.

These calculations create a "unit of account" by which the government can measure the magnitude of the problem, she says.

Her full report will be released in the summer.

A business case

No doubt campaigners will hope that Professor Walby's costing will help convince business of the scale of the problem, in terms of productivity and lost output.

In the US it has been estimated that the price companies pay for domestic violence is as high as $5bn (£3m).

"Like it or not money talks," says Davina James-Hanman, director of the Greater London domestic violence project.

She hopes Professor Walby's research will help companies extrapolate their own individual costs.

But she concedes "they are not very interested at the moment".

Dawn has now escaped the abuse she suffered for more than a decade. "I feel I have become a much stronger person," she says.

"But if my employer has taken a more [proactive] approach, I think it would have made a big difference.

"If an employer can maintain a healthy, happy staff, then the work turnover is better and the profits would be better."