Legal Updates

A creation of a hostile sexual environment in the workplace is considered sexual harassment and an employer must prevent it

August 22, 2018
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A medical secretary worked for several years in a state-owned hospital under a senior doctor. During these years the doctor shared too much intimate information about his sexual activity, used to tell dirty jokes in her presence and offended her when he laughed and compared the secretary to a monkey. The secretary did not claim that she was sexually harassed but left her job because of the doctor and later it became clear to the Civil Service Commission, who opened an investigation against the doctor.

The Court held that sexual harassment in the workplace is not characterized only by "quid pro quo", that is, by exchanging favors between the employee and the employer. Another type of sexual harassment is done by creating a hostile work environment by engaging in sex, sexuality, and gender in a way that makes the workplace unbearable for the employee. Since the relationship between employer and employee is a matter of authority, the basic assumption is that there are differences of power between the parties, and therefore the worker is not required to prove that the work environment has become intolerable, but it should be enough to indicate and point out certain behaviors.