Proposed legislation seeks to tackle bullying

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In early 2001, the Portuguese parliament is considering new legislation to prevent "psychological terrorism" and "moral harassment" - essentially bullying (or "mobbing") - at the workplace. The draft law has been prompted by increased concern in political and trade union concerns about the number of reported cases of such harassment.

In December 2000. the Portuguese parliament debated draft law 252/VIII dealing with "psychological terrorism" and "moral harassment" - essentially bullying (or "mobbing") - at the workplace. A second draft was added to the project before discussion began. After being presented, the drafts were submitted to the parliamentary Committee on Labour, Solidarity and Social Security for further discussion, expected during January 2001.

The draft law acknowledges that contemporary society, and particularly the "European social model", attributes growing importance to safeguarding workers' dignity and psychological integrity. It therefore seeks to protect people from psychological violence at work, which may be perpetrated by employers or their representatives, hierarchical superiors, fellow workers or any type of individual who wields de facto power over the employee at the workplace.

The proposal describes psychological terrorism or moral harassment as seeking to harass, persecute and/or isolate workers though acts such as: not allocating tasks to workers or allocating tasks for which they are overqualified; moving workers to different locations to damage their career progression; unjustified demotion; keeping relevant information from workers or deliberately providing them with erroneous information; or making threatening or insinuating comments to the worker outside the workplace. These acts are often intended to cause instability and/or compel workers to leave their jobs. Acts against the psychological integrity of the worker are also dealt with in the draft law.

One of the deputies responsible for introducing the draft law stated that there have been many cases of such bullying and that several formal complaints of harassment have been lodged with the National Ombudsman (Provedor de Justiça). Bullying has often been perpetrated against qualified employees in hospitals, universities and religious institutions, and is often directly linked with interests of a political, financial and religious nature.

According to the Portuguese Association for the Study of Women (Associação Portuguesa de Estudo sobre as Mulheres), among the most common cases of moral harassment is one where a female worker who takes maternity leave returns to find that her job has been given to another worker.

The debate

One of the key issues in the debate on the draft law is the penalties to be applied in proven cases of harassment. The draft law submitted by the ruling Socialist Party (Partido Socialista, PS) favours criminal prosecution of the employer, which would be subject to a prison sentence of from one to three years, or two to four years in the event of aggravating circumstances. The entities that employ the actual perpetrators of bulllying acts should also be included in the sanctions when either actively or passively involved in the strategy of harassment used against the worker. The other legislative proposal, put forward by the Communist Party (Partido Comunista Português, PCP), provides only for economic penalties.

Under the draft law, it is the responsibility of the worker to provide proof of the facts on which the claim of harassment is based. However, it is then the responsibility of the accused party to prove that it did not commit these acts with intent to commit psychological violence. The General Labour Inspectorate (Inspecção Geral do Trabalho, IGT) will be responsible for receiving formal complaints that are lodged and statements of intent to bring charges.

The proposal is that the employing entity and the hierarchical superior of the worker would be co-responsible with the actual perpetrator for paying financial compensation for moral damages. In cases of forced dismissal, the worker would have the right to compensation of twice the amount due if he or she were dismissed without just cause.

The opposition Social Democratic Party (Partido Social Democrata, PSD) and People's Party (Partido Popular, PP) believe that Portuguese labour law already provides for the protection of workers against situations of moral harassment and bullying, and for them to respond and seek reparations. These parties also believe that experts in the field of psychology, the social partners and the public employment authorities should be heard with regard to the proposed legislation.

Tarde union views

The General Workers' Union (União Geral de Trabalhadores, UGT) believes that certain factors, such as gender, age and precarious work, and work in certain activities, such as the hotel industry, seem to increase the tendency for workers to be subject to psychological violence. In all cases, women seem to be a particular target group for bullying.

In the opinion of UGT:

• bullying is a form of "unnatural worker selection" whereby workers are divested of their self-esteem and security;

• bullying is one of the most serious types of illicit act perpetrated against workers in the current era of the "new economy";

• the proposed law's definition of psychological terrorism is not adequate, and it does not go far enough in defining situations concretely; and

• some acts warrant criminal prosecution

In the view of the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses, CGTP), moral harassment should be categorised as a crime and punished as such. There must also be ways of compensating the victim for moral damages.

Commentary

The issue of bullying, psychological terrorism and moral harassment, which is not new, has recently been the object of legislation, proposed legislation or social partner concerns in a number of EU Member States (FR0101121F). In Portugal, the coverage that the issue of harassment has received in the media lately has sparked considerable attention and heightened awareness among the public. (Maria Luisa Cristovam, UAL)