“There are no provisions regulating the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace in the Labor Code.” Nvard Philiposyan

In March of this year, the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs put the draft law on “Amendments and Additions to the RA Labor Code” for public discussion. However, the draft lacks provisions regulating the problem of sexual harassment at the workplace.

For this reason, in recent months, the Women’s Resource Center and the Sexual Violence Crisis Center have been working with government agencies to adopt these provisions in the Labor Code.

WomenNet.am talked to Nvard Piliposyan, a lawyer of the Women’s Resource Center, about the topic.

– In recent months, you have been working quite closely with the state sector, in parallel, you are also conducting a study on sexual harassment at the workplace in Armenia. Tell me about it, please.

– First of all, I should mention that we conducted the research together with the Sexual Violence Crisis Center. From the beginning, the goal was to examine the Labor Code and raise issues of gender sensitivity, that is, to what extent does the Code address the specific problems that women may face or are facing in labor relations, and to what extent do they correspond to modern international standards. We paid special attention to the conventions of the International Labor Organization, as well as referred to the EU regulations, which Armenia undertook within the framework of the Comprehensive and Extended Partnership Agreement. It is on the basis of this study that we have prepared a number of proposals, which we have connected with the draft law “On Amendments and Additions to the Labor Code of the Republic of Armenia” submitted for discussion recently.

Basically, what proposals did you present?

– Basically, the proposals are related to the fact that the Labor Code lacks definitions on workplace violence and harassment. Although there is a general provision that violence at work is prohibited, however, since there are no clear definitions, this provision takes on a kind of declaratory nature. Neither the employer nor the employee clearly understands what phenomena we are talking about. We proposed that the wording of the ILO Convention 190 be included in the Labor Code, as well as to clearly state that both violence and harassment in the workplace are prohibited.

– You mentioned that the issue of sexual harassment is the most debated among the proposals presented by you. What is the problem? Why are the discussions going on for so long on an issue that, it seems, should have a very clear perception?

– I see two main problems here. First, taking into account the fact that the field is specific, there is a problem of formulating the problems correctly. It is necessary for the decision-makers and policy-makers to study the international experience a little longer. In this sense, there is both resistance and lack of awareness, narrow professional knowledge. And this leads to the fact that decision-makers often avoid entering into discussions on the topic, or they are analyzed in a more everyday way.

The second problem is that this issue is the most taboo. State bodies avoid settling the issue or postpone that moment as much as possible, and the workers either prefer not to work or put up with the situation.

– You also had certain recommendations regarding the equal pay of women and men and persons subjected to violence in the family. Please elaborate on these suggestions as well.

– Yes, we have also presented proposals related to persons who are subjected to violence in the family. Often, for a person who is being abused in the family, showing up for work becomes a problem, also from the point of view of security, because the abuser, as a rule, knows the workplace of the victim, can follow him and continue the violence. We suggest that in all cases where an urgent intervention or protection order is applied to the abuser, the opportunity to work remotely or away from the workplace should be established for the abused person, if this is not possible, the person should be granted leave and his/her job should be preserved.

– You mentioned that you studied the issue of gender sensitivity of the Labor Code. How would you rate it, as well as other state policies that are being developed today? To what extent is the principle of gender equality taken into account in them?

– Regarding the Labor Code, I can say that it is quite sensitive, especially regarding pregnant women, we have quite a few regulations that leave very limited grounds for employers to fire a pregnant woman. In this regard, however, I must note that I notice a certain regression in the presented project. An attempt is made to widen those bases. We also have certain advantages for parents with children under the age of three, which, of course, are not exclusively aimed at women, but in our country, it has turned out that it is mostly women who take care of young children and work at the same time. There are also adjustments for breastfeeding women, etc.

As for other areas, the picture is much more bleak. The problem is that the general legislative process does not undergo a gender examination, which, by the way, should have been done, because this is defined by the RA Law “On Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities for Women and Men” since 2013. It is obvious that the importance of this is not realized at the decision-making level.

Full text in Armenian