Discrimination and harassment - how can employers protect themselves against a lawsuit?
For some time in Western Europe, it has been necessary for employers to guard against a potential lawsuit from an employee regarding discrimination or sexual harassment in the workplace. The last few years have seen considerable…
For some time in Western Europe, it has been necessary for employers to guard against a potential lawsuit from an employee regarding discrimination or sexual harassment in the workplace. The last few years have seen considerable development of such cases in the employment tribunals and employment lawyers have been kept busy in this regard.
Eastern Europe, and in particular Romania, are behind in their approach to these issues and there have not been any major lawsuits regarding discrimination or harassment, although in the writer’s opinion as a Romanian employment lawyer this is only a matter of time.
Romanian employees are now learning from globalization about their British or American counterparts successfully suing their employers for discrimination, sexual or otherwise, or harassment, and have therefore become more likely to file a lawsuit and even, in some cases, press criminal charges against an employer or a member of the management of the company on grounds of discrimination or harassment.
Although there have not been many cases to date Romania does have in place legislation covering discrimination and harassment by reason of race, religion, and sexual orientation as well as age. The Labour Code, Government Ordinance no. 137/2000 regarding the prevention and punishment of all forms of discrimination as well as Law no. 202/2002 regarding equal opportunities and equal treatment between men and women effectively cover these issues. In addition, Directive 2006/54/EC on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation and Directive 2004/113/EC implementing the principle of equal treatment between men and women in the access to and supply of goods and services have been transposed into Romanian law.
Romanian law covers both direct and indirect workplace discrimination. These apply in respect of:
- Direct discrimination means that an employer treats an employee comparably worse than other employees based on for discriminatory reasons. An example of direct discrimination would be when a pregnant employee is terminated for being pregnant or when a candidate is not hired solely for their sexual orientation or their ethnicity.
- Indirect discrimination is the result of company policy or practices that whilst not obviously discriminatory create a disadvantage for certain categories of people. An example of indirect discrimination would be asking a female candidate during a job interview about her marital status or about pregnancy plans. The only situation where such policies or practices are permitted by the law is when there is a legitimate purpose and the means for achieving this purpose are necessary proportional and adequate.
