Legal protection against harassment at work in domestic and international law

Abstract

Harassment at work is a labour law problem that has become relevant in recent decades, in parallel with the development of neoliberal capitalism and globalisation, which together cause flexibility in the sphere of labour. In such working conditions, when the workplace is harder to maintain, other employees and employer use several illegal methods, harassing colleagues, to break them mentally, so that they leave the work environment. We have had a Law on prevention of harassment at work for more than a decade. It contains shortcomings and good solutions. The efficiency of legal protection against harassment at work in work environment depends mostly on the position of the employer. Internal mediation is an effective method to prevent harassment at work with employers who maintain quality interpersonal relationships in the team, while it is often a method for satisfying the form of law. By applying the historical, sociological, and comparative method, with reference to the international labour standards, Convention No. 190 and Recommendation No. 206 and European standards, we tried to send proposals to the legislator, in order to improve the existing normative framework.