Ministry of Labor: 511 petitions regarding harassment or discrimination at work, registered last year / What the new law promulgated on Thursday provides

The Ministry of Labor announces that, in 2023, 511 petitions regarding harassment or discrimination at the workplace were registered with the Labor Inspectorate, compared to 137 registered in 2014. The law on the prevention and elimination of violence and harassment at the workplace was promulgated on Thursday by President Klaus Iohannis, informs News.ro. “Employees have the right to work in an environment where they are respected regardless of gender, race, ethnicity or political orientation,” said the Minister of Labor, Simona Bucura Oprescu.

“According to the data provided by the Labor Inspectorate, in 2023, 511 petitions regarding harassment or discrimination at work were registered. Following the checks carried out, 41 sanctions were applied, the total value of the fines being 18,000 lei. As a comparison, 10 years ago, i.e. in 2014, only 137 referrals were registered”, the Ministry of Labor reported on Thursday evening.

The institution specifies that the notion of “violence and harassment” covers, among others, physical abuse, verbal abuse, harassment and mobbing, sexual harassment, threats and stalking or surveillance.

“The new legal framework protects both employees and people working regardless of their contractual status, people in the training period, including trainees and apprentices, workers whose employment has ended, volunteers, people looking for a job and those who submitted applications for employment, as well as the persons who exercise the authority, duties or responsibilities of an employer”, the officials of the Ministry of Labor also sent.

“Employees have the right to work in an environment where they are respected regardless of gender, race, ethnicity or political orientation. We notice that there are more and more reports of harassment. It is necessary that the measures be firm, but proportional to the seriousness of these deviations. The law promulgated today comes to create the conditions for a working environment in which the dignity of employees is respected”, said Simona Bucura-Oprescu, Minister of Labor and Social Solidarity.

The law initiated by the Ministry of Labor and Social Solidarity for the ratification of the Convention on the prevention and elimination of violence and harassment at work was promulgated on Thursday. The draft law was adopted by the Senate, as a decision-making chamber, on March 4, 2024.

What the new law includes

President Klaus Iohannis promulgated, on Thursday, the law for the ratification of Convention 190/2019 on the elimination of violence and harassment at work, adopted at the 108th session of the Conference of the International Labor Organization (ILO), in Geneva, on June 21, 2019.

The normative act expands the notion of “workplace” so that acts of harassment are also considered acts that are produced in delegations, team-buildings, any public or private spaces that are related to the workplace.

The new legal framework protects both employees and people working regardless of their contractual status, people in training, including trainees and apprentices, workers whose employment relationship has ended, volunteers, people looking for a job and those who have applied for a job, as well as the persons who exercise the authority, duties or responsibilities of an employer.

A novelty is that even online communications are circumscribed to the workplace and can be the subject of acts of harassment, the cited source also indicates.

The ILO Convention improves the current legal framework regarding:

– health and safety at Work;

– ensuring inspection and investigating cases of violence and harassment;

– justice (criminal investigation, legal assistance);

– the issue of gender and discrimination;

– public health (supervision of the provision of medical care and psychological counseling);

– social protection (accommodation of victims in shelters, integration of victims on the labor market, etc.).