Sexual harrassment at work or the training place

The Fraunenotruf Bielefeld e.V. advises and supports women who experience sexual harrassment at work or at their training place. This could be for psychological relief or it could include concrete steps how the woman can protect herself. In this context, one law is particularly important:

The General Law on Equal Treatment [“Allgemeine Gleichbehandlungsgesetz“ (AGG)] exists in Germany since August 18th 2006. Simply put, the law states: All humans have the same rights, it is not allowed to discriminate against anybody. This means: It doesn’t matter where you come from, which religion you have, if you are male or female or how old you are, if you live with a disability or if you are gay. Women are more often discriminated and often experience multiple disdrimination.

The aim of the AGG law is to protect employees from discrimination and improve the protection against discrimination, especially at work. The law explicitly forbids sexual harassment at the workplace, meaning “sexual behavior that violates the affected person’s dignity”. The law also states that employers are obligated to protect their employees and apprentices from sexual harassment at work.