The evolution of labour rights in Russia has changed in recent years in a few
different ways. According to Lushnikov and Lushnikova (2015), the labour rights
of an employee in the twenty-first century are ones that were shaped in both an
industrial and a post-industrial society. Therefore, the "material" aspect of
them received the most attention. Employees' property rights, such as the
entitlement to salaries and compensation for material damages, were of the
utmost importance and were adequately protected by law.
Scientists refer to the stage of social evolution that civilization has reached
in the twenty-first century as "postindustrial society" or "information
society." This transformation resulted in a shift in values, especially those
governing labour relations, as well as a change in the means of production
(knowledge becomes the primary resource). The gradual shift to a digital
workflow poses a threat to the security of employee personal data in the age of
computers, the Internet, and social networks, where employees' private lives can
readily be made public. Even the possibility of a "digital concentration camp"
is discussed by researchers.
- A "digital aquarium," where all of the employee's information is readily
available, allowing for pressure and manipulation. The shift in worker
generations is also becoming a significant element. According to Kirillova,
younger generations place less importance on pay in the workplace and place
more emphasis on creative self-fulfillment, innovation, and self-search.
These data show that personal non-property labour rights are the direction of
labour law evolution in the informational XXI century. For workers, a steady
salary is insufficient; they want respect, consideration of their private
interests, and psychological comfort at work. A person's conflict with an
organisation can be fully avoided if the social and psychological requirements
of workers are addressed, according to special research. These studies also
point out that the decisive influence on productivity growth is not exerted by
material variables, but rather primarily by psychological and social ones.
The right to equal treatment and protection from discrimination, the right to
the protection of personal information and privacy, the right to complete and
accurate information, and the right to the protection of honour, dignity, and
professional reputation are all examples of labour rights, which have the
individual as their core.
In addition, the current labour laws lack the institutions and legal mechanisms
that would enable an employee to effectively defend their rights. An employee's
dignity, honour, and privacy are also vulnerable to vertical bullying and
harassment from management and horizontal bullying and harassment from coworkers
in the absence of legal restrictions. The issue of sexual harassment at work is
among the most hazardous. Employees are compelled to remain silent about such
facts because of the intricacies of labour relations related to their dependent
status.
Russian labour law has to be amended to include measures to protect employees
from harassment, according to international legal standards and foreign
experience in dealing with this issue.
Methodology
The sociological method was used to identify the detrimental effects of sexual
harassment for public relations. The method of analysis and synthesis allowed us
to consider various manifestations of harassment in contemporary conditions and,
on the basis of this, formulate general conclusions and recommendations.
The analysis of the present international and Russian anti-harassment laws was
done using the formal legal technique.
Result
In the European national laws that apply to relationships at work, the concept
of "harassment" emerged rather late.
The 1996 revision of the European Social Charter contains one of the earliest
mentions of harassment. The right of workers to uphold their dignity while
working is established by Article 26 of the Constitution, which also requires
states to take all necessary precautions to protect workers from harassment and
other overtly hostile or offensive behaviour at work or in connection with their
jobs. When the Russian Federation ratified this agreement, it did not assume any
obligation to abide by Article 26.
Sexual harassment is defined as any form of unwanted verbal, nonverbal, or
physical sexual conduct that aims at or results in an offence to a person's
dignity, especially by creating a threatening, hostile, degrading, or offensive
environment, by Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal
treatment for men and women in employment and access to work on the 5 July 2006.
A special ILO Convention No. 190 "On the Elimination of Violence and Harassment
in the World of Work" (Beqiraj: 2019, pp. 1167-1176) was adopted in 2019.
According to this convention, the term "violence and harassment" in the
workplace refers to a number of unacceptable behaviours and practises, or the
threat of such - whether it be a single or repeated incident - with the purpose,
result, or potential consequence of inflicting physical, psychological, sexual,
In order to define sexual harassment, it is first necessary to specify the kind
of behaviours that constitute it. The list of behaviours that fall under this
category is also very long: they include unwanted hugs, kisses, touches, looks,
jokes, screensavers or posters with sexual content, unwanted invitations to have
sex or dates, obsessive questions about a worker's personal life or appearance,
etc.
But these variants have the following characteristics:
- Such conduct is disrespectful to the victim's dignity and has sexual
connotations.
According to Sâmboan, it is "irrelevant whether or not the author has
pursued a specific objective with the harassment, or whether or not the
author understood the effect it has on the victim." The abuser does not
intend to demote or otherwise drive the victim out of their current position
in this regard. Such actions might also be motivated by other factors, such
as vengeance, envy, cowardice, personal discontent, etc.
It is crucial to place emphasis on the motivation behind such behaviour and
its underlying reasons. The truth is that European directives currently
define harassment as a form of discrimination. However, the motivation for
such behaviour often stems from personal animosity, retaliation, wrath, etc.
rather than a desire to oppress someone because of their gender, ethnicity,
skin colour, or other characteristics.
- The goal of this behaviour is to foster a hostile environment.
An employee is forced to work in a "hostile environment" if they are
subjected to intimidation, mockery, or insults because of their gender or
sexual orientation, according to the definition.
Discussion
Bethany Hastie notes that "tribunals and courts have come to understand the
legal "test" for determining whether conduct is "unwelcome" as: "[T]aking into
account all the circumstances, would a reasonable person know that the conduct
in question was not welcomed by the complainant?" Bethany Hastie studied the
practise of complaints of sexual harassment at the BC Human Rights Tribunal from
2010 to 2016.
Since the abuser "should have known" that their behaviour was unpleasant for the
victim, it is not essential to prove that the bad behaviour was purposeful; a
casual form of culpability is therefore very possible in certain situations.
The latency of this phenomena and the reluctance of victims to discuss such a
phenomenon are related to the difficulty of creating legal defences against
workplace harassment. In Russia, there are layers of modernisation and layers of
traditional, even archaic, discourse about gender. Particular focus is placed on
the archaic components, the interconnectedness of families, and sexual dynamics
in the workplace. These things should be taken into account when protecting
harassment victims.
Since the abuser "should have known" that their behaviour was unpleasant for the
victim, it is not essential to prove that the bad behaviour was purposeful; a
casual form of culpability is therefore very possible in certain situations.
The latency of this phenomena and the reluctance of victims to discuss such a
phenomenon are related to the difficulty of creating legal defences against
workplace harassment. In Russia, there are layers of modernisation and layers of
traditional, even archaic, discourse about gender. Particular focus is placed on
the archaic components, the interconnectedness of families, and sexual dynamics
in the workplace. These things should be taken into account when protecting
harassment victims.
We offer our recommendations for potential modifications to labour law that
would safeguard employees from sexual harassment at work. The workers' physical
and mental health should be protected by the labour protection institute.
According to the World Labour Organisation, bullying and harassment are frequent
issues that can seriously harm employees' mental health, and the loss of
productivity brought on by depression and anxiety disorders costs the world
economy $1 trillion a year.
Recognising that employees have a right to both physical and mental health puts
the onus on the employer to ensure suitable working circumstances, which in the
case of sexual harassment may entail taking precautions to avoid a hostile work
environment.
Conclusion
One of the major risks in contemporary culture is sexual harassment at work,
which puts people in an uncomfortable social setting and has a bad impact on
their mental health. Undoubtedly, there have been latent facts of harassment in
the past, but current social processes (most notably the #MeToo movement) and a
shift in the way that workers' rights issues are viewed have brought these cases
to light and necessitated the creation of effective response strategies. Labour
legislation must adapt to the changing social interactions, having mechanisms
that protect, among other things, the honour and dignity of workers, as
patriarchal foundations and "family" labour ties will soon become obsolete.
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