Legal regulation of anti-discrimination and mobing in the field of labor

Abstract

The absence of discrimination in the workplace is an important condition for productive work, mental and physical health of employees, preservation of a sense of human dignity and personality development, a healthy moral climate in the team, effective communication in production in vertical and horizontal planes and other necessary processes in the field of work, since any labor team is not only a production, but also a social environment. The negative impact of discrimination is felt far beyond the boundaries of a specific workplace, as negative emotions affect a person's family, friendships, and other social relationships.

Anti-discrimination problems are the subject of research by specialists in legal, social and economic sciences, in particular, the legal protection of employees is being studied according to individual characteristics: gender, disability, HIV-positive status, migration, gender identity, ethnic or linguistic minorities, etc. There are a number of international and national regulations that prohibit unequal treatment of employees on grounds unrelated to a person's qualifications, productivity, and business qualities. Prohibition of mobbing (harassment) and establishment of responsibility for such actions became a relatively new phenomenon for national legislation.

Adherence to the principle of equal treatment of employees and non-discrimination is one of the main areas of activity of the International Labor Organization, which is reflected in the norms of a number of conventions and recommendations. One of the latest is Convention No. 190 on Violence and Harassment, adopted by the ILO in 2019, which once again emphasizes the importance of creating decent working conditions for individuals on the basis of equality in the absence of any violence or harassment. In Ukrainian legislation, there are norms regarding the support of certain vulnerable groups of employees - minors, persons of pre-retirement age, internally displaced persons, persons with disabilities and others. This phenomenon is sometimes called "positive discrimination", which is socially determined.

Discrimination and mobbing must be excluded from labor relations as those that reduce the quality of life, hinder decent work and human development, therefore the presence of clearly defined norms that establish responsibility for such actions is very important. Anti-discrimination legislation provides for disciplinary, material, financial, administrative and criminal liability for relevant offenses. Changes were made to the administrative legislation regarding the establishment of liability for mobbing (harassment) at the workplace, but there are no clearly defined norms regarding liability for violation of the prohibition of discrimination, as well as no definition of the act itself.