THE FIRST ROMANIAN REGULATION ON MORAL HARASSMENT

Abstract

Since August 10 th 2020 entered into force the first Romanian normative act expressly regulating the moral harassment, Law no. 167/August 7th 2020 amending Government Ordinance no. 137/2000 on the prevention and sanctioning of all forms of discriminations, and Law no. 202/2002 on equal opportunities and treatment for women and men. In July 2020, about one month before the coming into effect of the regulation on moral harassment, the Law 53/2003 -the Labour Code- was amended through Law no. 151/2020 which supplements the provisions safeguarding the principle of equality of treatment and the principle of human dignity. The paper is an analysis of the rights and obligations provided for by the recently adopted legal framework, of the legal measures having as purpose to improve the protection of these principles, identifying the legal aspects of an absolutely new character, highlighting the benefits of the new regulations for vulnerable holders of such rights, as well as some of Romanian legislator's reasons. Even if moral harassment is not a new phenomenon at all, the abuse behaviour and its numerous faces, its consequences on physical, mental and emotional health, the existence of equality and dignity rights and the possibility to defend them are less known in Romania, and therefore less respected. The new regulations above safeguarding against visible and invisible abuse, particularly the Law no. 167/August 7th 2020 modifying the Government Ordinance no. 137/2000, should be considered a great first step toward a new age of fundamental rights protection in the Romanian society. Keywords: moral harassment, principle of human dignity, principle of equality of treatment, physical, mental and emotional health, stress and physical exhaustion, high liability standards.