 Saudi Arabia issued an amendment to its Work System Law in late July of 2019. Changes include the following:
Additional Information: https://sd.mlsd.gov.sa/ar/policies/%D9%86%D8%B8%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%84-0. If you are interested in EHS regulatory products for Saudi Arabia, the Isosceles Group provides a number of tools covering this jurisdiction including: EHS Legal Registers, EHS Audit Checklists, EHS Audit Checklist Supplements, EHS Quarterly Regulatory Updates, and more. Please contact Brittany Palmer at 617.330.2800 or [email protected] for a customized quote.  Author: Ellen Pinkos Cobb
South Korea has recently enacted, and Japan has recently passed, legislation to prevent workplace bullying. The South Korea bullying law, effective May 29, 2019, creates new employer obligations and provides a legal definition of workplace harassment for the first time. Japan passed revisions to several laws to prevent "pawa hara," or workplace bullying, requiring companies to combat bullying and abuse of power in the workplace. Under an amendment to the South Korea Labor Standards Act, new employer obligations include prohibiting workplace harassment; promptly conducting an investigation once an employer is notified or made aware of workplace harassment allegations; protecting the victim through measures such as paid leave or changed workplace assignments; taking action such as disciplining the harasser or changing the harasser's workplace; not retaliating against either the victim or the individual who reported the harassment; and specifying in Rules of Employment how an individual can report workplace harassment. The Ministry of Employment and Labor has published a Workplace Harassment Prevention and Response Manual which sets out criteria to determine conduct that constitutes workplace harassment. The employer is not obligated to provide its employees with any harassment training or prevention education. Punishment is only provided for one type of violation - criminal punishments in the form of potential imprisonment for three years and a fine of up to KRW 30 million for employers that retaliate against an alleged victim during an investigation. Japan will require companies to combat bullying and abuse of power in the workplace. Through revisions made to five laws, aspects of workplace harassment will be defined and prohibited for the first time, and companies will be required to take stricter action to prevent forms of workplace harassment. The revisions also encompass other forms of harassment, such as harassment against pregnant women. The legislation, however, does not stipulate what the punishment would be for companies that violate the new requirements. Sources: MOEL, MOEL published Workplace Harassment Prevention and Response Manual at https://www.moel.go.kr/english/poli/poliNewsnews_view.jsp?idx=1506. Japan Times Japan bolsters fight against workplace harassment, but laws lack punitive measures at https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/05/29/national/japan-bolsters-fight-workplace-harassment-punitive-measures-elusive/#.XXuo9ShKg2w. Quartz at Work, Japan finally passed laws to prevent "pawa hara," or workplace bullying at https://qz.com/work/1631097/japan-passes-laws-to-prevent-pawa-hara-workplace-bullying/. The Isosceles Group offers Workplace Wellness Assessments and Workplace Bullying Assessments and Checklists. If you would like Isosceles to develop an assessment for a particular jurisdiction, please contact Brittany Palmer for a quote at [email protected] or (617) 330-2800.  Author: Ellen Pinkos Cobb
In light of surprising workplace sexual harassment statistics, the UK government is taking actions aimed at determining whether the current laws provide the protections they are supposed to provide to women. The most recent action is a public consultation aimed at gathering evidence about whether the current laws on protecting people from sexual harassment in the workplace are effective. The consultation acknowledged that sexual harassment in the workplace persists at "a startling rate". The UK published the consultation on harassment in the workplace in response to concerns raised by the Women and Equalities Select Committee in their 2018 report. The consultation began on July 11th and ends on October 2, 2019, seeking comments on the following:
This follows the Government's announcement in December 2018 that it will introduce a new statutory code of practice to tackle workplace sexual harassment. Source: Gov.UK, Consultation on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace athttps://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-sexual-harassment-in-the-workplace. The Isosceles Group offers Workplace Wellness Assessments and Workplace Bullying Assessments and Checklists. If you would like Isosceles to develop an assessment for a particular jurisdiction, please contact Brittany Palmer for a quote at [email protected] or (617) 330-2800.  Author: Ellen Pinkos Cobb
Amid allegations of institutionalized harassment being built into the management system, a long awaited first of its kind workplace bullying trial took place in France this summer. A CEO and senior executives have been accused of harassing employees so relentlessly, that workers ended up committing suicide. This is the first trial in France for workplace bullying that involves a company of this size, currently the tenth largest mobile network operator in the world. In 2016, following a seven-year inquiry into a wave of suicides at France Telecom (now Orange), the Paris prosecutor recommended that France Telecom's former chief executive and six other former senior executives be put on trial for bullying (known in France as moral harassment or psychological harassment). The accused faced charges linked to bullying and creating a climate that drove between 19 and 35 employees to take their own lives in 2008 and 2009. The prosecutor found that the executives, needing to restructure and significantly downsize the business, resolved to make life so unbearable that the workers would leave. As the workers were state employees - employees for life - they could not be fired. The prosecutor alleged the following: that in order to encourage employees to leave, managers were trained to demoralize their teams and their bonuses were dependent on this; that work inspectors underlined the brutal management methods, which had an adverse effect on employees' physical and mental wellbeing; and that management failed to take into account alarms and warnings over the impact of its actions and the psychological risks to staff. When asked to explain the rash of suicides, the CEO described it as a "fashion", sparking widespread outrage. Under French law, anyone who harasses another with repeated actions with the aim or the effect of degrading working conditions is liable to a year in jail and a fine of €15,000 ($16,500). A verdict is expected by year's end. Sources: The Guardian, Former executives at France Télécom go on trial over staff suicides at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/06/former-executives-at-france-telecom-go-on-trial-over-staff-suicides-orange. Fortune, France Asks a Devastating Question: What Role Did Telecom Executives Play in 35 Employee Suicides? at https://fortune.com/2019/05/08/french-telecom-orange-trial-suicide/. The Isosceles Group offers Workplace Wellness Assessments and Workplace Bullying Assessments and Checklists. If you would like Isosceles to develop an assessment for a particular jurisdiction, please contact Brittany Palmer for a quote at [email protected] or (617) 330-2800.  Greg Sorozan, Ellen Cobb, Ivonne Moreno-Velazquez, Maureen Duffy, Jessi Eden Brown, David Yamada and Kathy Rospenda gathered at the Work, Stress and Health Conference 2015, May 6 to 9 in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference was convened by the American Psychological Association, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the Society for Occupational Health Psychology. Work, Stress & Health Conference 2015 Last month, I attended the Work, Stress and Health Conference, a biennial conference sponsored by the American Psychological Association, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the Society for Occupational Health Psychology. I was there because I was serving on a panel with David Yamada and Maureen Duffy. David is a law professor, author of the Healthy Workplace Bill, and the founding director of the New Workplace Institute at Suffolk University Law School here in Boston. Maureen is a practicing family therapist, coauthor of Overcoming Mobbing, and a consultant to human resources managers and attorneys. All three of us are members of the Workplace Bullying academy. We came together to lead a panel discussion on the impact of new workplace bullying laws on employee relations stakeholders. Lessons from the Panel Discussion I spoke about the duty of care required by numerous international health and safety laws to keep a workplace safe not only from physical risks, but psychological risks. I reviewed the workplace bullying laws, recent studies and case law to provide context for our discussion. We looked at the Northern European countries, where the oldest and strongest workplace bullying laws exist. We then explored recent developments in Australia, Canada, Japan and Turkey. David detailed the small but significant steps that have occurred with anti-workplace bullying legislation in Fulton County, Georgia, California and Utah. A lot of the discussion focused on the fact that the United States has a lot of work to do both in terms of writing anti-bullying legislation and developing a culture of dignity at the work as well as the high costs of workplace bullying to both the targets and the organization. Lessons from the Conference One of my favorite parts of the conference was meeting so many of my colleagues. David Yamada talks about Conferences as Community Builders. And that concept was particularly true of this conference, where I had the opportunity to speak with academics, researchers, practitioners and colleagues from across the globe. In Europe, many of these research projects are funded by the government. And workplace bullying is looked at from a much broader perspective that goes beyond physical health and safety and explores emotional abuse. We also learned about a number of studies on mental health in the workplace and how different nations are dealing with responding to concerns about mental health. Organizational health psychology is a growing field. Speaking with my colleagues, I gained a deeper appreciation for the perspectives, knowledge and stories we bring to our work. We won’t be able to solve this complex problem in a vacuum. Only when we work together will we be able to effectively address workplace bullying and create a culture of dignity at work.  Resource Presentation Notes: Workplace Bullying Around the World. An overview of the bullying legislation and case law in Northern European countries, where the oldest and strongest laws exist, as well as recent developments in Australia, Canada, Japan and Turkey.
A 2010 Zogby International survey of adult Americans (commissioned by the Workplace Bullying Institute) showed that 35% reported personally being bullied at work. Of the respondents, 64% supported having laws to protect workers from “malicious, health-harming abusive conduct” committed by bosses and co-workers. It's Time for the US to Enact Anti-Bullying Legislation Despite these findings, an employee can still be a target of bullying in the workplace in the US and have no legal recourse. State and federal laws do not cover acts of harassment unless based on characteristics covered by law, such as race, religion, gender, or disability. Numerous states have introduced anti-bullying legislation drafted by Suffolk Law School Professor David Yamada. None have been enacted. Yet. The US would do well to look around the world. Numerous countries have legislation to protect workers from bullying. Canada, Australia, and nine European countries have enacted anti-bullying laws, including Sweden, France, and Denmark, and Serbia. As of January 1, 2014, an Australian worker who believes he or she has been bullied may apply to the Fair Work Commission for an investigation and if cause is found, have an order issued to the employer to stop the bullying. Costs to workplaces in which bullying is allowed to occur include loss of skill and experience when a worker leaves due to being bullied, lowered employee morale, medical and insurance costs, and harm to a company’s reputation. Research has shown that workers who witness bullying can have a stronger urge to quit than those who experience it firsthand. Under workplace health and safety laws, employers have a duty of care to provide a safe work environment for employees. This requirement is often interpreted to require ensuring persons in the workplace are both mentally and physically safe at work and increasingly interpreted to require a workplace free from bullying. It is time for public perception on workplace bullying to change. Maybe, with attention focused on the complexities of the Dolphins situation, it will. 
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