A maid who works at a train station in Timiş County has won against Romania at the European Court of Human Rights, where she complained of sexual harassment by her boss and was denied justice by the Romanian courts. The decision of the Strasbourg court is an important precedent for sexual harassment cases in Romania.

According to ECDO decisions, the Romanian state must pay the woman moral damages in the amount of 7,500 euros, writes clujust.ro.

The case was also reported by Family Minister Gabriela Firea, who says that sexual harassment at work is a reality because it is a criminal act that should be investigated as such.

What Firea says about the case of a woman who received justice at the ECtHR after she complained that she was harassed by the manager of the CFR station where she cleaned.

• “The case considered by the ECtHR is recent. A woman who worked as a maid at a train station in Timiş County complained of repeated harassment by the station manager.
• The case was investigated by the prosecutor’s office, but after three years it was finally closed, as the investigators came to the conclusion that the aggressor pursued the woman, but did not put her in a humiliating position and did not intimidate her, as required by the Criminal Code.
• However, ECtHR judges point the finger at the investigators, and the Romanian state must pay the woman 7,500 euros in compensation.
• In an unprecedented decision, the judges claim that prosecutors did not take into account the evidence and there were procedural flaws.
• This is the first time that the ECtHR considers that sexual harassment belongs to private life and affects the moral and physical integrity of a person.”

She also says that the verdict handed down in Strasbourg is an important precedent for all cases of sexual harassment in Romania, as well as in Europe.