The Karin Law, which promotes safe and harassment-free work spaces, has come into effect, so business leaders of all sizes are already training their employees to prevent any conduct that could harm the work environment.
Although it was the shocking story of a public servant who took her own life after being the victim of workplace harassment that gave rise to the law, in the last two years, the numbers have come to reinforce the drafting of the initiative. According to the Labor Directorate, in the last two years, more than four thousand complaints of workplace harassment have been received.
“It is extremely important that companies establish their protocols within their internal regulations, as it is the best way to protect workers in these cases,” explains Cristian Montero, director of Adactiva, who emphasizes the preventive approach of the regulation.
Both public and private organizations are training their workers to ensure a “violence-free environment, where dignified treatment and a gender perspective prevail,” which is imposed by a very clear law: “Companies must have a protocol for the prevention of sexual harassment, workplace harassment and violence at work, as well as an investigation and sanction procedure within the internal regulations of order,” explains the director of Adactiva.
In addition, employees must be able to easily access the channels established to report any breach of the new law. But for companies, it is not just about avoiding sanctions. “Workplace harassment not only damages people’s integrity, it also has a negative impact on productivity and the organisational climate, so this law opens up an opportunity to improve internal policies, reputation and even profitability,” says Cristian Montero.
Finally, it is a joint and participatory effort in which advice will be essential. “If a company does not have clear protocols within its internal regulations, it will hardly have legal arguments to defend the worker who has been the victim of workplace harassment,” says the director of Adactiva, whose team is already providing advice to support small and medium-sized companies in this matter.
Guarantees for those who report
-The Karin Law incorporates new legal definitions and improves existing ones, such as workplace harassment, sexual harassment, violence at work by third parties outside the employment relationship, and non-discrimination, in addition to explicitly incorporating the gender perspective in employment relationships in Article 2 of the Labor Code.
-The role of the Labor Directorate (DT) and the Comptroller General of the Republic in the corresponding investigation procedures is reinforced, with the aim of providing guarantees to the complainants.
-Companies and State bodies will be required to have a protocol for preventing workplace harassment and/or sexual harassment and violence at work, reinforcing a preventive approach that was absent in the regulation. This must be done under the guidelines established by the Superintendency of Social Security (SUSESO).
The main changes introduced by the Karin Law:
a) Incorporates the principles of confidentiality, impartiality, speed and gender perspective in investigation procedures.
b) Specifies that the complaint may be written or oral to the company, establishment or service, or to the Labour Inspectorate. In the case of an oral complaint, the person receiving it must draw up a record, which must be signed by the person making the complaint, who receives a copy.
c) Requires employers to take immediate protective measures, ensuring the safety of the reporting person and providing early psychological care.
d) If the complaint is made to the Labour Inspectorate, the latter must request the employer – within a maximum period of 2 days – to adopt protective measures, which must be adopted immediately.
e) If the complaint is made to the company, establishment or service, it may carry out an investigation or send the background information to the Labor Inspection within 3 business days.
f) In the case of violence at work, the conclusions will contain the corrective measures that the employer will adopt in relation to the cause that generated the complaint.
g) In accordance with the merit of the investigation report in cases of sexual and workplace harassment, the employer must, within 15 days from receipt thereof, arrange for and apply the corresponding sanctions.
h) The measures or sanctions adopted will be reported to both the person making the complaint and the person accused.
i) Employers shall be obliged to provide information to the reporting person regarding the channels for reporting events that may constitute potential crimes in the context of sexual harassment, workplace harassment or violence at work.
j) If the competent Labour Inspectorate, in the exercise of its powers, becomes aware of a violation of fundamental rights, it must file a complaint in court, and conciliation regarding sexual harassment is not mandatory.
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