Dismissal of a woman due to pregnancy as well as sexual harassment and mobbing at the workplace are complaints received by the island’s Commissioner for Legislation who also heads the Gender Equality in Employment Commission.
This is what Louisa Christodoulides-Zannetou told Philenews, adding that this is unlawful but – unfortunately – the percentage of employees who dare to file a report is very low. And that legislation gaps make the sad situation even worse.
She also said that the vast majority – 90% – of victims of such incidents are women but a gap in legislation when it comes to mobbing cases complicates the issue further.
Mobbing, as a sociological term, means bullying of an individual by a group, in any context, such as a family, peer group, school, workplace, neighborhood, community, or online.
“Since we have the Equal Treatment of Men and Women in Employment and Vocational Training Law of 2002 and since we have the mechanism for managing complaints, there is no reason why mobbing should not be regulated by law,” she said.
As regards sexual harassment at work, which is a criminal offence, she said that nine out of 10 victims are women but only a handful file a complaint.
The issue was recently addressed in a public debate on “Mobbing, Sexual Harassment at Work” organised by the Independent Union of Cyprus Public Employees under the auspices of the Gender Equality Commissioner.
