In Romania, concepts related to harassment at the workplace have been updated. Employees have more rights, and employers have more responsibilities. The legislation is quite new, employees and companies do not know it, because it appeared on the eve of the pandemic, diverting from the topic.

However, many people experience harassment at work and may not realize it.

It’s important to know if this happens.

“There are studies that claim that harassment at work, violence, abuse of power, conflict at work over a long period of time can even lead to physical health problems. At the first stage, we are talking about mental health. Subsequently, it is about the impact on the health of the employee,” said lawyer Dana Dunel Stancu from Biriș Goran at the Romanian Health and Safety Management Forum.

Short:

• All workplace harassment involves some form of discrimination

• Psychological harassment is persistent, repeated behavior that, even if it is not offensive or insulting, results in psychological harm to the victim.

• Moral Harassment: any interaction that may affect the health, dignity, mental health, well-being that a person should have in the field of work

• There is a special rule that states that employers must have a clear policy for combating, preventing harassment at work, and cruel treatment.

• There were ITMs that checked the implementation of these norms. They fined the companies under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

• The law requires companies to have employee and management training programs

• Courts began to consider mobbing, harassment at work, and apply sanctions to employers.

• The courts believe that mobbing means: isolation of the victim, ignoring, professional discrediting, which lead to a threat to the victim’s health.

• Courts also say that eliminating duties or leaving an employee inactive can cause him mental harm

• If there is clear evidence that the relationship and abuse goes beyond a normal work environment, it falls within the illegal scope of moral harassment as defined by law

The story of Adrian (34 years old) about how the management of the company he worked for wanted to invite someone else to replace him, and they started by calling him to the company at different times, he was assigned to do things that were not his competence , in the idea of ​​making mistakes and finding a reason to fire him. Besides, they often insulted him.

“They had a friend they wanted to bring. At one point I had an online discussion with HR because that’s where the harassment started. They said different things and I recorded the conversation,” he said.

The only way out was to call a lawyer. He explained to them that there was an audio recording and emails that corroborated Adrian’s words.

“They were framed. They called me a few days later and asked if I wanted to drop further legal action, offering me 12 compensatory wages. I accepted,” he said.

It should be noted that courts accept secretly made recordings that testify to employer abuse. It is important that the registration is carried out for a legitimate purpose. That is, abuse can be proven.

How harassment at work is defined in Romanian legislation

“The legislation is new and we have new concepts. They are less well known because they appeared just before the pandemic. In 2018-2019, they tried to promote the idea. It stopped because of the pandemic,” Stanku said.

• We have a Labor Code that was finalized in 2020

• We have a government regulation from 2019 that talks about equal opportunities and treatment for women and men, which provides for the implementation of various regulations to deal with harassment at work.

• Government Order 137 on preventing and combating all forms of discrimination was also finalized in 2019.

• Also in 2019, International Labor Organization Convention 190 on Harassment and Violence in the Workplace was adopted, signed and agreed.”

“Legislators added an additional clarification that says that anything that is harassment at work involves some form of discrimination,” she says.

Why was the concept of discrimination linked?

“When we talk about abuse of power, the law, persecution, violence, open conflict, behind it is the idea that the victim is different, lower than the aggressor,” says Stanku.

• “The problem is that this work dynamic is constantly changing. Sometimes the victim becomes the aggressor. Often the victim becomes the aggressor.”

“Discrimination is the starting point of all that distorts interaction, resulting in a hostile, intimidating, humiliating, humiliating, offensive, otherwise dangerous and unhealthy environment,” she said.

The Convention of the International Labor Organization came up with something extra.

“This goes beyond employment relations based on an individual employment contract. Talk about violence and harassment in the world of work. Everything that means professional life and a professional program covers it,” explained the lawyer.

• “This is a new convention. It has not yet been ratified. Romania probably signed it. Ratification at the EU level is expected. It is applicable. After all, this is a convention signed by all states. This is a kind of umbrella that hangs over the already existing legislation.”

The Romanian legislator, she says, came and made some terminological distinctions.

“There is a term psychological harassment in the legislation. The term was introduced in 2015 in the Act on Equal Opportunities and Treatment between Women and Men, without emphasizing the gender difference. Simply put, the definition applies regardless of the gender of the people interacting in this way,” she said.

Psychological harassment is persistent, repeated behavior that, even if it is not offensive or offensive, results in psychological harm to the victim.

“Later appeared the Decree on Prevention and Punishment of All Forms of Discrimination: Definition of Moral Oppression. It has a very broad spectrum and concerns any interaction that can affect health, personal dignity, mental health, and well-being that a person should have in the field of work,” says Stanku.

Sexual harassment is a form of harassment that is regulated differently, in particular, and includes a small portion of the reprehensible behavior that is now legally defined as harassment.

What companies should do: their duty

All these norms are aimed at the interests of employees who have obligations to the employer.

“There is a special rule that says employers must have a clear policy to combat, prevent harassment at work, ill-treatment,” Stanku said.

Is it an occupational health and safety issue? Most likely: Yes!

There were ITMs, she says, that checked the implementation of these norms. They fined the companies under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

“The law requires companies to conduct training programs for employees and management in the sense that people should know that these rules exist. The employer is obliged by law to draw up training programs on this matter,” she said.

The management of the company must first analyze what is happening in society.

“We need to do an analysis. Do I have this problem in society? could i have it Then you need to write internal rules. The law obliges companies to draw up an annual action plan to analyze every year to see how things have changed,” says Dana Dunel Stanku.

Which institutions can apply sanctions to companies

• The National Council for Combating Discrimination (CNCD) has the right both to impose sanctions on individual behavior and to oblige companies to implement internal policies, to introduce new rules in the company.

• According to her, ITM inspectors have undergone internal training on equal opportunities and treatment, mistreatment at work, harassment at work.

“It is possible to come to decisive control on this issue. He started doing it even before the pandemic,” Stanku said.

• ANES is an agency that deals with issues of equal opportunities for women and men.

• The police, if applicable, including law enforcement.

• Courts

How the Courts Handle Harassment in the Workplace

Dana’s lawyer, Dunel Stancu, says the courts have recently clarified the law a bit. In 2010, harassment, conflicts, and mistreatment at work were treated differently, and later, in 2016, changes took place.

Courts began to consider mobbing, harassment at work, and apply sanctions to employers.

“If at first they were limited to the provisions of the Labor Code, now they began to approach comprehensively. They believed that mobbing means: isolation of the victim, ignoring, professional discrediting, which lead to a threat to the victim’s health,” she says.

These things happen at work.

“There is absolutely no need for insults and all kinds of verbal abuse. There is enough pressure and interaction that stresses the employee to an abnormal, unhealthy level that causes insecurity,” the lawyer explained.

• “Mobbing is an illegal act, which consists in subjecting an employee to certain types of actions that, taken separately, do not have an illegal nature, but are considered as a single result as annoying, carried out for the purpose of harassment, etc.”

Even the courts, says Stanku, have declared that removing duties or leaving an employee inactive can lead to his mental damage.

“Therefore, it is not only necessary to act here, even inaction can lead there,” said the lawyer.

How courts see stress in the workplace

Courts also talk about stress.

“They addressed this topic of stress at work. Stress at work is natural, normal, but impersonal. The activity may be stressful for a period of time, it may be extremely stressful at work, but it is impersonal. It does not affect human dignity,” she explained.

• “Working conditions can be difficult, but they are accepted by the employee from the very beginning. Know them and transfer them to the appropriate income.”

“Work is daily stress. We don’t go to the spa when we go to work. We have a lot to work on there. It must be taken into account that when there is clear evidence that the relationship and abuse go beyond normal work, they fall under the illegal sphere of moral oppression defined by law,” said Dana Dunel Stancu.

The court specifies mobbing and toleration by the employer’s management of a tense situation, that is, situations that are hidden under the blanket.

“The longer we do not address these situations, the greater the risk of further sanctions,” she concludes.