Zadar, 3 March 2010 – For the first time in the Croatian judiciary practice a case of sexual harassment at workplace has resulted with a court verdict, issued on 2 March 2010 by the Municipality Court in Zadar. After the court proceeding which lasted for two years, former branch manager of Interspar Zadar was sentenced to six months in prison for violation of labour rights, while a housekeeper of the same establishment was sentenced to four months in prison and two years of probation for the act of sexual assault.

During the period of almost three years (May 2005 – March 2008) former branch manager was verbally harassing on the sexual basis one of the female workers in the shop, making comments on her looks, asking questions about her underwear, offering to drive her home and stating that he would like to have sexual intercourse with her. Such behaviour, as stated in the verdict, has violated worker’s dignity and caused fear and anxiety due to which she on many occasions asked for medical treatment in a psychiatric clinic.

The housekeeper was sentenced for the event that took place on 7 November 2007 in the bar within the Interspar establishment, when he approached a female worker from the back and grabbed her breasts.

According to a survey conducted in 2002, around 9.7 percent of Croatian citizens, majority of them women, experienced verbal or physical sexual harassment at workplace.

Croatian Labour Code includes penalty provisions for violating worker’s dignity and discrimination at workplace, which provide legal basis for sanctioning sexual harassment at workplace. However, such incomplete and too general provisions so far have not resulted in court verdicts.

The verdict issued by court in Zadar therefore represents late but welcome and important precedent which will hopefully lead to further judiciary practice in this field but also possibly initiate discussion about including explicitly formulated provisions on sexual harassment at workplace in the Labour Code or even passing a separate law on sexual harassment, which has been advocated for by women’s groups and organisations for a number of years, including UATUC.

The two workers victims of harassment are members of the Commercial Trade Union of Croatia, affiliated to the UATUC. The first legal assistance in the proceeding was provided by an UATUC legal representative Vedran Uranija in the Zadar county office. He emphasized that there were also other anonymous reports on such behaviours in Interspar. The trade union cannot represent workers in the criminal proceedings, however after legal validity, i.e. judgement becoming unappealable, the UATUC will represent them in labour law suit and demand compensation for damages.