Online harassment in labor relations

The article notes that the integration of social media into our daily lives has led to the blurring of the boundaries between work and personal space and, as a result, the growth of harassment on social media. Based on various statistics and international studies, it can be argued that harassment at work, especially sexual harassment, is a complex, unresolved problem for many companies around the world, and the constant growth of remote work that began during the pandemic directly leads to an increase in complaints about aggressive actions on the Internet. The authors of the article point out that harassment on social media in the workplace does not have to be limited to traditional working hours, and the harasser can be not only a colleague, manager, or technical staff, but also a client, supplier, etc. To effectively combat harassment in the workplace, organizations must first develop a zero-tolerance policy against harassment or any other form of discrimination and cultivate a culture of empathy. However, a policy or training alone is not enough if there is no detailed and effective mechanism for reporting harassment to a manager or an authorized body at the enterprise. The article analyzes the foreign and national experience of the procedure for reporting harassment and protecting violated rights. The author concludes that since Ukrainian legislation does not define harassment and does not establish liability for such actions, employees have the opportunity to protect their rights only within the framework of the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Men and Women” and the Law of Ukraine “On Principles of Prevention and Combating Discrimination in Ukraine”. Therefore, the issue of supplementing national legislation with such a term as harassment, defining its possible forms and establishing liability, as was done, for example, with regard to mobbing, is now an urgent one.