On March 27, 2025, a lecture on the topic of "Bullying and (sexual) harassment in the workplace" was organized by both Staff Council committees and the Equal Opportunities Committee (EOC) at WU. Ms. Marion Egger from the Gewaltschutzakademie Graz was invited to give the lecture, which provided a very good overview of the definition of the terms, the legal situation, the underlying dynamics and the effects on employees and employers. For all those who were unable to attend the lecture, we would like to offer a brief summary here.

At the beginning of the lecture, the definition of sexual harassment was established as: any unwanted and unilateral behaviour with a sexual connotation that offends the dignity of the person affected. An important legal basis for this definition is the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights of which Article 1 states: "Human dignity shall be inviolable. It shall be respected and protected."

Sexual harassment in the workplace can take the form of lewd jokes or remarks, sexualized communication, "accidental" touching, staring, pornographic material on the screen, pin-up calendars in the office or messages via SMS or WhatsApp. Any form of sexual harassment in the workplace should be clearly identified as such. Colleagues can help in such situations but can also make the situation worse by trivializing it. Power imbalances and a lack of "eye level" in the workplace also exacerbate the dynamic. Sexual harassment clearly affects the working environment.

What is meant by discrimination? Discrimination is the disadvantage of people in connection with certain characteristics such as gender, skin colour, ethnic or social origin, age, disability, language, religion, ideology, political or other beliefs, membership of a national minority, sexual orientation, wealth, birth or genetic characteristics. The subjective perception of the person discriminated against is the starting point when assessing whether discrimination takes place. It is irrelevant whether the discrimination was intentional or not.

At Austrian universities, legal protection from sexual harassment or discrimination exists under the Federal Equal Treatment Act (B-GlBG), which states legal consequences for the harassing person as well as for the employer in the event of discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, religion or belief, age or sexual orientation, as well as in the event of sexual harassment, if the employer discriminates or takes no action against harassment.

What does bullying mean? According to Leymann, bullying is conflictual communication in the workplace between colleagues or between supervisors and subordinates, in which the person being attacked is inferior and is systematically, frequently and over a longer period of time directly or indirectly attacked by one or more persons with the aim and/or effect of being expelled from the employment relationship and perceives this as discrimination. Workplace bullying is therefore not a conflict in the workplace, but when one or more persons engage in systematic, targeted and harassing behaviour towards another person with the aim of isolating and ultimately expelling that person from their job. Bullying behaviour can affect the ability to communicate (e.g. by being constantly interrupted), the social relationships (e.g. by being treated like air), the social reputation (e.g. by spreading untruths about a person), the quality of the work and life situation (e.g. by not being given any or only meaningless tasks or by being deliberately given too much work in order to be discredited for failing to complete the workload) or the health (e.g. by threats of physical violence or sexual assault).

Bullying impairs performance and has health consequences for those affected. On average, those involved spend 40% of their working hours on bullying incidents.

From a legal point of view, bullying is a cross-cutting issue that can involve civil and criminal law as well as labour law. Under labour law, the employer is obliged to protect its employees from bullying as part of its duty of care. However, colleagues can also take action by not looking the other way when bullying is observed, but by offering the person concerned help and support. Those affected should contact their supervisor, contact the Staff Council and/or the EOC, but above all document all bullying incidents (e.g. as a bullying diary).

Prevention is an essential task of the employer to avoid discrimination, sexual harassment or bullying in the workplace. This requires a climate of dignity and respect within the university, a transparent process and a contact point for suspected cases, trusted persons and external support.

WU has already made some efforts in this regard, such as the brochure "No to Harassment"or the extensive counselling services offered by wohlbefinden@wu. This also offers the opportunity to seek external help. WU provides very specific support in this context and covers the costs for up to five hours of counselling if employees are affected by conflicts or sexual harassment or feel they are being bullied (details can be found here). There is also a corresponding support service for employees who find themselves in a stressful life situation, regardless of discrimination and co (details can be found here ). We encourage all those affected to make use of this offer, because the better off the individual is, the better the joint cooperation at the workplace will work.

^28.05.2025

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