Legal Definition and Modalities of Harassment under the Law

Constituent Elements of the Legal Definition

Legally, workplace harassment is defined as any persistent and demonstrable conduct, exercised on an employee by an employer, an immediate or immediate superior, a co-worker or a subordinate, aimed at instilling fear, intimidation, terror and anguish, causing work-related harm, generating demotivation at work, or inducing resignation from work. The key words are "persistent" and "demonstrable".

The law requires that the conduct must not be an isolated event (except for extremely serious exceptions), but a succession of facts evidencing a pattern of systematic harassment with a clear destructive purpose.

Modalities: From Mistreatment to Persecution.

The regulations classify harassment in different modalities to facilitate its identification.

Mistreatment at work" encompasses acts of physical, moral or sexual violence, including offensive verbal expressions.

Labor persecution" refers to repeated and evidently arbitrary conducts that allow inferring the purpose of inducing resignation, such as technical disqualification or excessive workload.

This typification allows judges and internal committees to frame the factual facts within a specific legal category, avoiding ambiguities as to what constitutes a punishable assault and what is simply mismanagement.

Modalities: Entorment, Inequity and Disprotection.

Other crucial modalities include "Labor Impediment", which consists of actions to hinder the performance of work (hiding inputs, deleting files, delaying procedures).

Labor Inequity" refers to the assignment of functions to the detriment of the worker, giving him/her tasks far below his/her capacity in order to humiliate him/her.

Finally, "Labor Disprotection" occurs when the worker is ordered or induced to perform behaviors that put his integrity and safety at risk without the necessary protective measures.

These categories cover the spectrum of direct and indirect aggressions, thus closing the circle to the subtle tactics of harassers.

Summary

Legally, harassment is persistent and demonstrable conduct aimed at instilling fear or inducing resignation, requiring that it not be an isolated but systematic event.

The modalities include mistreatment (physical/moral violence), persecution (arbitrary conduct to discourage) and discrimination, allowing judges to frame the facts in specific legal categories.

Hindering (hindering tasks), inequity (assigning demeaning functions) and disprotection (deliberately putting integrity at risk) are also criminalized.