Law on combating workplace harssement promulgated

On Friday, President Klaus Iohannis promulgated the Law on preventing and combating workplace harassment.

The normative act regulates the modification and supplementing of the Government Ordinance no. 137/2000, as well as of Law no. 202/2002, in the sense of establishing measures for preventing and combating workplace harassment.

According to the law, workplace harassment means any conduct exercised in respect of an employee by another employee who is his superior, subordinate and/or equal in hierarchical terms, which has as its purpose or effect the deterioration of working conditions by damaging the rights or dignity of the respective employee, by affecting his physical or mental health or by compromising his professional future, which conduct may take the following forms: a) hostile or unwanted conduct, b) verbal comments, c) actions or gestures, being punishable either as misbehaviour or misdemeanour, as the case may be.

Workplace harassment would be any behavior that, by its systematic nature, may harm the dignity, physical or mental integrity of an employee or group of employees, endangering their work or degrading their work environment. For the purposes of this law, stress and physical exhaustion are subject to workplace harassment as well.

Employees who commit acts of harassment at work are subject to disciplinary action, in accordance with the law and the internal regulations of the employer. The disciplinary liability does not remove the contraventional or criminal liability of the employee for the respective acts.

The employer has the obligation to take any necessary measures in order to prevent and combat acts of harassment at work, including by providing in the internal regulations of the disciplinary sanctions unit for employees who commit acts or acts of harassment at work. Otherwise, the sanction is fined from 30,000 lei to 50,000 lei.