We invite you to read the article in Diario Financiero, where our partner, Jorge Arredondo, commented on the increase in the number of complaints of sexual harassment in the workplace.
In the last three years, the number of complaints in this area filed with the Labor Directorate has increased. Experts point out that the concept has undergone changes in relation to its understanding and classification.
Law 20.005 of 2005 incorporated to the Labor Code new precepts on investigation and punishment of sexual harassment at work, establishing that the behaviors constituting harassment are not limited to physical approaches or contacts, but would include any action of the harasser on the victim that may represent a requirement of undue sexual nature, which may occur by any means, including verbal proposals, e-mails, letters or personal missives, among others.
With the regulation, this form of violence was typified, explains the legal director and founding partner of Defensa Empresarial, Francisco Cornejo. We can say that the concept has undergone changes hand in hand with the changes that society has also undergone’, he points out.
For the executive, the social evolution of the concept of sexual harassment in the workplace is closely linked to the perception that people have of it and points out that awareness, education, empowerment of the victims and the gender approach would be the fundamental elements of the process.
In the last three years, the number of complaints has increased and according to data from the Labor Directorate, which consider the procedures and actions in force as of July 25, 2024 and do not contemplate the changes that will be implemented as a result of the entry into force of Karin Law, 593 presumptive complaints of sexual harassment in the workplace were filed in 2021, 868 in 2022, 1. The wholesale and retail trade, together with the repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, are the economic branches where most have been filed in the last three years, according to official data.
‘Jurisprudence has expanded the actions that can be carried out by one worker with respect to another, where a sexualized or sexualized hostile climate is created with respect to labor relations,’ explains Albagli Zaliasnik’s Labor Group lead partner, Jorge Arredondo. The progress that has been made in this matter, he says, is in understanding sexual harassment not only as a corporal approach, but as ‘any type of incidence that puts at risk or damages the sexual indemnity that every worker has in his or her work environment’.
Now, with the implementation of the Karin Law, the Minister of Labor, Jeannette Jara, assures that they fundamentally expect companies, with the participation of their workers, to “proactively manage the prevention of risks associated with violence and harassment, to investigate and sanction these behaviors and to promote safe and healthy work environments”.
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