Question 21512 — harassment

Summary

Mr. Erwan Balanant alerts the Minister of Labor to the worrying extent of the resolution of cases of sexual harassment at work, through transactional protocols. Sexual harassment is defined in article L. 222-33 of the penal code as “the fact of repeatedly imposing on a person comments or behaviors with sexual or sexist connotations which either undermine their dignity because of their degrading nature or humiliating, or create an intimidating, hostile or offensive situation against him.” Sexual harassment at work is a particularly alarming phenomenon: it affects one in five women and is likely to threaten the mental and physical health of victims. In addition to the applicable criminal sanctions, sexual harassment at work is also punishable by article L. 1153-1 of the labor code. However, to avoid doing subject to civil or criminal convictions, companies where sexual harassment is widespread strongly encourage victims to enter into a transaction. They then offer to pay compensation to the victim, to compensate for their damage. In return for this compensation, the victim undertakes to drop all proceedings and to remain silent about his harassment and the existence of a memorandum of understanding. An article from France Info published on June 8, 2019 denounced this practice which, due to its secret nature, remains largely unknown to public services and civil society. However, it is the source of real failures. The confidentiality of transactions does not entail any change in the behavior of the company concerned. Without any condemnation or change in behavior on the part of the company, the transaction does not allow for a fight against sexual harassment, on the contrary, it constitutes, for the perpetrators of harassment, a means of burying the facts without having to answer for their actions. This is all the more worrying because once the transaction is concluded, the victim will no longer be able to even mention this violence in another trial in which she would be required to testify. Some lawyers therefore believe that these transactions may amount to subordination of witnesses, an offense punishable by three years' imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros, in accordance with article L. 434-15 of the penal code. Furthermore, this massive recourse to transactions has, once again, the consequence of denying the victim status of those compensated via such transactions. Poorly informed of their rights and remedies in the event of harassment, it is rare for victims to denounce the facts as soon as they first demonstrations. Thus, and even more so in the long term, sexual harassment causes psychological consequences for employees, sometimes making them unfit for work and likely to lead to their dismissal for incapacity. It is when the employee, unjustly dismissed, appeals to the industrial tribunal that an offer of settlement from the employee appears. The victims, weakened and having lost their jobs, often do not have the means to go to court for a long and grueling trial. They then often feel forced to accept this financial exchange. This practice mainly concerns women, it deepens the massive discrimination to which they are victims in their workplace. He asks what measures the Government intends to take to remedy this phenomenon and how to improve prevention around rights of victims of sexual harassment at work and support for them.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

No documents linked.

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.