The Greek Law 4808/2021 law ratified the ILO Convention No. 190 concerning the elimination of violence and harassment in the workplace. Under this law, new protective rights for employees and compliance obligations for employers are introduced. For example:
- Employees, who are subject to sexual harassment are allowed to leave the workplace for a reasonable period of time, without any salary loss or other consequences.
- Employers with more than 20 staff members are responsible to adopt written policies to prevent and combat harassment and violence in the workplace and to handle internal complaints. This protection is afforded not only to employees, but to every person that provides services at the workplace, including independent contractors, interns and volunteers, regardless of the contractual relationship with the employer
- Further, companies with more than 20 employees, are obliged, within three months from the publication of the law (introduced September 2021), to adopt a policy for the prevention and elimination of violence and harassment at work, that shall declare zero tolerance for these forms of behavior and identify the rights and obligations of the employees and the employer to prevent and deal with such incidents or forms of behavior.
- In addition, companies employing more than 20 employees, must adopt a policy for managing internal complaints of incidents of violence and harassment, that should describe the process of receiving and examining such complaints in a way that ensures the protection of the victim and respect for human dignity.
True, these measures are not very crystal-clear. They will become crystal clear though once people start to act. It is up to you to act.
