Discrimination, sexual harassment and harassment Examples and definitions

Discrimination

The Equal Opportunities Working Party is responsible for preventing discrimination on the grounds of

• gender;
• ethnicity;
• religion;
• belief;
• age and
• sexual orientation.

Direct discrimination takes place when persons are treated unequally in comparable situations based on one of these grounds.

Indirect discrimination takes place when seemingly neutral regulations or rules have a disadvantageous effect on persons on the basis of these grounds.

Sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is defined as conduct related to the sexual sphere which is unwanted, inappropriate, degrading, insulting, or offensive to the affected person (see section 8 of the B-GlBG). The decisive factor is how the person being harassed perceives the behaviour:

• Physical harassment (unwanted and inappropriate physical contact or closeness, sexual assaults, sexual abuse and rape).
• Verbal harassment (sexist jokes, jokes or anecdotes with contents of discriminating nature, offensive and suggestive remarks, remarks about physical characteristics, appearance, clothing or sex life).
• Non-verbal harassment ('undressing' someone with the eyes, showing sexist or pornographic material).

Harassment

Conduct that is destroying or intended to destroy a persons' dignity and that is unwanted, inappropriate, degrading, insulting or offensive. At the workplace, such a behaviour creates or is intended to create an intimidating, hostile, or humiliating work environment for the person affected.

Discrimination on the grounds of

• gender
• age
• religion
• belief
• ethnicity and
• sexual orientation is prohibited by law.

Discrimination and harassment on the basis of a disability are prohibited by the disabled persons employment act.

How can affected persons react?

• Get help and contact the Equal Opportunities Working Party or any other counselling office of the University of Vienna.
• Do not harbour feelings of guilt and do not ignore the behaviour of persons engaging in harassment.
• Document the incident (e.g. minutes of a conversation, including key data such as date, time, place and information about the situation).

How should witnesses react?

• Take responsibility and support the person affected in the situation if possible.
• Encourage the person affected to get help.
• Document the incident (e.g. minutes of a conversation, including key data such as date, time, place and information about the situation).
• Contribute to putting an end to the discrimination through your behaviour.

Options of the Equal Opportunities Working Party in case of suspected discrimination relating to personnel decisions

• The Equal Opportunities Working Party has the right to lodge an appeal to the Arbitration Committee within three weeks after having been notified of an incident.
• Please note: If the Equal Opportunities Working Party lodges an objection to the Arbitration Committee, the relevant university body may not take the decision until the Arbitration Committee has come to a decision.