Law no. 202/2002 on the equality of chances and treatment between women and men has been recently amended by Law no. 178/2018, respectively Law no. 232/2018.
Law no. 178/2018 introduces two new occupations in the field of equality of chances and treatment between women and men, respectively the “expert in equality of chances” and “technician in equality of chances”.
In this regard, Law no. 178/2018 provides that public authorities and institutions, as well as private companies having more than 50 employees have the possibility to hire an expert in equality of chances or a technician in equality of chances or may assign to an existing employee certain related attributions, in order to promote and ensure the applicability of the non-discrimination and equality legislation at the work place.
The attributions corresponding to said occupations are, inter alia: (i) assessment of compliance with the equality and non-discrimination principles, (ii) elaborations of recommendations/proposals/measures in order to mitigate the risks which may lead to the breach of the said principles, (iii) elaboration of action plans and programs in the field of the equality of chances and treatment between women and men.
Furthermore, Law no. 178/2018 introduces another new concept in the field, respectively gender violence defined as the act of violence directed against a woman or, as the case may be, a male, based on gender. Gender violence against women is defined as the act of violence which affects women in a disproportionate manner. Gender violence includes, but is not limited to, domestic violence, sexual violence, genital mutilation of women, forced marriage, forced abortion and forced sterilization, sexual harassment, trafficking in human beings and forced prostitution.
As per the latest amendments brought by Law no. 232/2018, any behaviour of harassment, sexual or psychological harassment, manifested in public or in private, is forbidden. Such piece of legislation allow, in practice, the sanctioning of the harassment behaviour manifested especially in public places, by the application of administrative fines ranging from RON 3,000 to RON 10,000 by the Romanian Police or Gendarmerie. In the case when the acts of harassment fulfil the conditions for criminal liability of the perpetrator, by becoming a criminal offense, the provisions of the Criminal Code would become applicable.
Law no. 178/2018 for the amendment and supplement of Law no. 202/2002 on the equality of chances and treatment between women and men was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 627 as of 19th of July 2018. Law no. 232/2018 for the amendment and supplement of Law no. 202/2002 on the equality of chances and treatment between women and men was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 679 as of 6th August 2018.