Table of Contents
1. Purpose and scope of the Policy
3. Definitions
4. Obligations and rights of Employees
5. Obligations and rights of the Company
5.2 Company Rights
6. Assessing the risks of violence and harassment at work
8.1 Basic principles
10. Protection of the complainer and the complainee
11. Competent Authority for filing complaints – Procedure for filing complaints
12. Management, evaluation of complaints
13. Consequences upon detection of violations
14. Record Keeping
15. Personal Data
16. Final Provisions
The purpose of this Policy is to create and consolidate a work environment that respects, promotes and safeguards human dignity and the right of every person to a world of work free of violence and harassment. Through this Policy, a comprehensive, coherent and up to date framework of rules and internal procedures is set to prevent, deal with and combat forms of violence and harassment at work and the internal management of complaints related to these incidents.
The Company provides a healthy and safe working environment for all its employees, recognizing the importance of a work mentality based on mutual respect and human dignity. To ensure a safe working environment and prevent incidents of violence within, all employees of the Company should be aware of and understand the provisions of this Policy.
The Company declares that it shows zero tolerance for incidents of violence and harassment at work and adopts all necessary measures to prevent and eliminate them, in accordance with the terms hereof. The Company, acknowledging the serious responsibility it has as an employer, strictly prohibits any form of discrimination, violence and harassment that occurs during work, whether connected or resulting from it.
The Company takes into account and recognizes that violence and harassment in the world of work affects the psychological, physical and sexual health and dignity of the individual as well as his family and social environment, creating negative consequences on working relationships, employee motivation and productivity.
This Policy applies to all the Company's personnel (hereinafter the ‘Company’) regardless of their contractual status, including those employed under an employment contract, a project, independent services and temporary employment, salaried mandate and those employed through third party service providers, as well as to persons undergoing training, including trainees and apprentices, volunteers, prospective employees, persons exercising the authority, duties and responsibilities of the employer, employees whose employment relationship has been terminated or ended (hereinafter and for the sake of brevity the ‘Employees’).
The Company, through this Policy, undertakes that it has adopted all the measures and obligations related to the implementation of the provisions of Part II of Law 4808/2021 for the prevention and treatment of all forms of violence and harassment in the workplace, including violence and harassment due to gender, and sexual harassment and to this end it applies this Policy, which was drawn up specifically in accordance with articles 9 and 10 of Law 4808/2021.
The Company, as responsible for receiving and managing complaints in accordance with the terms of this Policy, is committed on one hand to maintaining the confidentiality and security of personal data collected during the exercise of its powers, and on the other to comply with the applicable laws and regulations regarding the processing of personal data of natural persons.
The procedures and requirements described in the following sections are governed by and fully comply with the current relevant legal and regulatory framework, in particular with the following, as applicable from time to time:
Furthermore, this Policy is reconciled and supplemented by the Company's regulatory texts, as in force from time to time.
Based on the current legislation, the following notions are understood as follows:
Harassment includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Gender-based and sexual harassment
Gender-based harassment is any form of conduct connected to a person's gender with the purpose or effect of violating that person's dignity and creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. These forms of behavior include sexual harassment, as well as forms of behavior linked to sexual orientation. In specific, sexual harassment is defined as unwanted behavior of a sexual nature, which includes unwanted sexual proposals, requests for sexual favors and any other unwanted physical or verbal act of a sexual nature. For illustration and understanding, examples of sexual harassment are the following:
‘Competent Authority’: a person designated by the Company who has the authority for the purposes of this Policy to guide and inform Employees on the prevention and treatment of violence and harassment at work, as well as to receive any complaints regarding incidents of violence and harassment at work and make the final decisions on how to combat them. The Human Resources Department of the Company is defined as the competent Authority.
‘complainer’: An employee of the Company, who himself suffered, witnessed or became aware of an incident of violence and harassment at work and/or domestic violence. Complainers are obliged under this Policy to report incidents of violence and harassment at work to the competent Authority.
4.1 Obligations of Employees
All Employees are ultimately responsible and accountable for their actions and are expected to at least treat each other with respect and refrain from violent and harassing behaviors at work. More specifically, in the context hereof, the Employees are obliged:
4.2 Employees’ Rights
In the context herein, all Employees who are affected by an incident of violence and harassment during access to employment or during their employment relationship or even if the contract or employment relationship, under which the incident or the offending behavior allegedly occurred, has ended, have the following rights:
In addition to the right to submit an internal complaint for incidents of violence and harassment at work to the competent Authority, in accordance with the procedure described in article 11 hereof, it is recalled that according to the current legal framework the Employee who is the victim of an incident of violence and harassment at work , even if the relationship under which the incident or behavior allegedly occurred against him has ended, he has the rights of article 12 par. 1 of Law 4808/2021, specifically:
(a) the right to claim judicial protection.
(b) the right to appeal before the Labor Inspectorate and the Ombudsman as bodies promoting and supervising the principle of equal treatment, in accordance with Law 3896/2010 and Law 4443/2016.
If the Employee himself is a victim of an incident of violence and harassment at work, he is entitled to leave the workplace temporarily, for a reasonable time, without loss of salary or other adverse consequence, if in his reasonable belief there is an imminent serious risk to his life, health or safety, especially when the measures already taken are not capable of stopping violent and harassing conduct. In this case, the leaver is obliged to inform beforehand and within a reasonable time before his departure, his administrative supervisor and the Human Resources Department, reporting the incident of violence and harassment and the incidents justifying his belief that a serious risk to his life, health or safety is imminent. If the risk has ceased to exist, the Employee returns to his work, while in case he refuses, the Company has the right to appeal to the Labor Inspectorate with a request to resolve the dispute.
5.1. Company Obligations
The Company is obliged to:
5.2. Company Rights
The Company is entitled to take any necessary and appropriate measure on a case-by-case basis against the complainee / reported person, in order to prevent and avoid the recurrence of an incident of violence and harassment at work, in accordance with article 12 hereof and based on the provisions of the applicable legislation and regulations texts of the Company and subject to appeal by the complainer to the competent judicial and administrative authorities.
Risk assessment is the process of evaluating the risks of the use or threat of violence and harassment against employees, arising from existing risks (sources of risk). It is a systematic examination of all aspects of work, which studies:
The identification and assessment of the sources of risks takes place through individualized employee criteria surveys, questionnaires, interviews with employee representatives and statistics, as noted in the reports of the European Organization for Safety and Health at Work (EU – OSHA).
The Company is committed to dealing systematically with the causes that may evoke the risks of violence and harassment at work, identifying weak and strong points, as well as ways to combat the risks identified.
The Company states that it conducts a regular assessment of psychosocial risks in order to immediately respond to combating such incidents and to the need for improvements, when required.
The purpose of the Company through this Policy is to:
The Company believes that such risks stem mainly from gender, age, differences in nationality, religion, professional training, sexual preferences, external appearance and level of professional experience.
Incidents of violence and harassment at work can take in specific the following forms:
The above risks are assessed as serious, concern all the Company's staff and have consequences both on the psychological and physical condition of the Employee, victim of the described behavior.
The Company, based on its obligations under the current legislation and in accordance with its regulatory texts, takes all the necessary measures to prevent, control, limit and deal with the risks of violence and harassment at work, indicatively by the following ways:
The Company implements a procedure for receiving and examining Employee complaints about incidents of violence and harassment at work in an impartial manner that ensures the confidentiality of the information provided and the personal data of the victims, the complainees and possibly of other persons involved, further ensuring the protection of the victim and respect for human dignity, according to the following.
8.1. Basic principles
(a) The Company is committed to the immediate management of the received complaints, to the investigation and examination of the complained, as well as to taking immediate measures to protect the victims.
(b) The Company ensures, through this Policy, the collection and investigation of all evidence and information related to each submitted Employee complaint, with the aim of providing a reasonably substantiated response and adopting the suitable measures to deal with incidents of violence and harassment at work, if required.
(c) The Company secures an environment of trust and safety for all Employees. For this reason, it encourages them to submit complaints in "good faith" about any incidents of violence and harassment at work and/or even domestic violence, which they suffer themselves or that come to their attention, which at the same time constitute illegal criminal acts based on the current legislation and its regulatory provisions. The Company informs the affected person that he/she may, at any stage of the procedure followed within the company also submit a complaint to the competent administrative authorities within their jurisdiction (Labor Inspection and Ombudsman) and to judicial authorities, of his choice.
(d) The anonymity and personal data of the complainers and complainees are protected, while the Company ensures that the present position of the complainers in the Company or their future development is not jeopardized under any circumstances. due to the submitted complaints.
(e) Secure and easily accessible channels of communication for the reception of complaints shall be created, as well as for the identification of competent persons within the enterprise to receive and examine the complaints and to inform the complainers.
(f) Complaints are made based on compliance and observance of the applicable institutional framework on the one hand and the need to safeguard the interests of the Company and its Employees on the other, without any payment promise or the existence of any compensation to the complainer.
(g) Complaints are treated with respect especially to the principles of high regard for personality, human dignity, protection of personal data, trust, transparency and professional conscientiousness and with impartiality. In this context, the Company: (i) investigates complaints diligently, without prejudice and discrimination, (ii) responds without delay and with attention to each complaint, (iii) makes every effort and exhausts every possibility to settle the complaint immediately, (iv) does not dispute with the complainer nor with the complainee, (v) does not retaliate or treat the affected person adversely.
h) Infringements shall require the cooperation and provision of any relevant information to the competent authorities, upon request.
The Company is obliged to cooperate with any competent authority which, either ex officio or following the request by an affected person, and within the framework of its competence, may request the direct provision of details or information. To this end, any data collected, in any form, is kept in a relevant file for five years, in compliance with the provisions of Law 4624/2019 (Α΄137).
8.2. Object of complaints
8.2.1. The submitted complaints concern incidents of violence and harassment at work and/or incidents of domestic violence, whereas these affect or may affect the Employee's mental and physical condition and consequently have a direct impact on his professional performance and development.
8.2.2. The Company encourages Employees to file complaints provided that they have a sincere and reasonable belief that acts of violence or harassment have been committed, are threatened or are likely to be committed, taking into account the general conduct and character of the complainer. The subject matter of the complaints does not cover mere rumors not connected with any fact, evidence or proof.
8.2.3. In case the reported actions are subject to legal procedure, provided for in the applicable legislation, it will be sent to the competent department of the Company for further investigation and relevant handling, based on the applicable regulations in each case.
9.1. The Company encourages, without excluding in advance, named complaints. Anonymous complaints make the task of detailed investigation extremely difficult or even impossible, due to the difficulty of providing evidence from an anonymous complainer (e.g. conversation, meeting to provide clarification during the investigation), but also due to the difficulty of assessing credibility of complaints. Anonymous complaints are investigated taking into account, inter alia, the seriousness of the matter and the likelihood that the complaint will be verified.
9.2. Submitted anonymous complaints are examined according to their level of substantiation.
9.3. The reference in the complaint to sensitive personal data based on the current legal framework (data concerning racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership in a trade union, genetic and biometric data, health, sexual life and sexual orientation) should be avoided, unless directly related to the subject matter of the complaint. Otherwise, the specific information will be deleted.
9.4. The Company undertakes to preserve the anonymity of the complainer and not to carry out actions that may result in the disclosure of his identity. However, disclosure of the identity of the complainer may be required by court or legal process, as part of the investigation of the case.
10.1. Complaints must be made in "good faith". The Company undertakes to protect its Employees, who have filed a complaint in good faith, from:
i. any acts of retaliation regarding their current position and future career development. It is noted that the Company does not tolerate and prohibits any kind of retaliation and further victimization of the affected Employee and will take all appropriate measures for his protection,
ii. any other kind of discrimination or any kind of unfavorable treatment,
iii. targeting actions or behaviors on the part of the competent body for receiving and examining their complaint. Similarly, if the examination of the complaint does not result in proof of the alleged conduct, it is prescribed that there will be no consequences for the person who made the report/complaint in good faith.
10.2. If the complainer participated in the event or act complained of, he is not relieved of his responsibilities, however, his contribution to the detection and investigation of irregularities, omissions or criminal acts will be much appreciated.
10.3. The persons included in the complaints (complainees) have the right to be informed about the complained act and about the persons who have access to the data included in the complaint, in the context of its examination. However, if there is a serious risk that the above notification could hinder the investigation of the case and the collection of the necessary evidence, the notification of the persons concerned by the report/complaint may be postponed until this risk ceases to exist.
The Company appoints the relevant Head of the Human Resources Department as the competent Authority, responsible for the receipt, management and examination of complaints. This body/person must cooperate and provide all relevant information to the competent administrative or judicial authorities, upon request.
The Head of the Human Resources Department declares and guarantees, on the one hand the observance of the confidentiality and security of personal data, which may come to his knowledge during the exercise of his above authority, and on the other hand his compliance with the applicable laws and regulations on the processing of personal data.
11.1. Complaints may:
i. be submitted directly in paper form to the Head of the Human Resources Department.
ii. be sent to the e-mail address policy@uni-pharma.gr
iii. be submitted through the anonymous complaints’ platform, which can be accessed via e-mail.
iv. be sent by post to the Company's headquarters, to the attention of the Head of the Human Resources Department, marked ‘Confidential’.
12.1. The Head of the Human Resources Department keeps a file, which contains the following information for each complaint: (i) number, subject, category and origin, (ii) information about the investigation of the complaint, and (iii) final result of the investigation and of actions.
12.2. After receiving the complaint, the Complaints / Reports Evaluation Committee is responsible for examining the complaints, which is formed by the company's Management, especially in view of the specific case (ad hoc) and consists of three (3) employees of the company, who they are neither complainers nor complainees. The Reports Evaluation Committee:
i. Immediately informs the complainer that his complaint has been received by providing him with a relevant acknowledgment of receipt (paper or electronic); also, about the findings of the relevant audit after its completion, if possible, but also during the investigation, if requested by the complainer.
ii. First assesses the seriousness and credibility of the complaint. If the complaint is judged by the Competent Authority to be indeed serious, it informs the Administration within five (5) days. If a complaint is deemed malicious or in bad faith or unsubstantiated, then it is archived, and no further investigation follows, after informing the complainer. The Company may, however, at its discretion, further investigate evidently malicious complaints, both in terms of motives and those involved, so as to restore order by any legal manner and means.
iii. Investigates, if the complaint is considered well-founded, within a reasonable period of time that cannot exceed thirty (30) days and formulates proposals to resolve the issue. Any delay should be adequately justified.
iv. Keeps minutes regarding the results of the investigations conducted on submitted complaints and informs the Company's Board of Directors through reports it submits annually or whenever it deems necessary, regarding all the complaints it has received and managed during the year.
v. To maintain workplace safety and the effectiveness of investigations, the Company may, inter alia, move employees or modify their work hours, while pending the outcome of the investigation. During this period, partial or total access to buildings and/or facilities may not be permitted.
12.3. If the complaint is verified and a violation is determined, the consequences of article 13 hereof will apply. Otherwise, the complaint is archived, and the complainer is informed accordingly.
12.4. If the complaint is related to a person involved in its investigation process or one of these persons has a conflict of interest, then this person will refrain from investigating the complaint and will be replaced after the Company's Management approval.
12.5. The Head of the Human Resources Department (the reference person or "link") informs the Employees regarding this Policy and the related procedures.
The finding of any culpable violation of the articles herein and the provisions of the current legislation that prohibit any form of violence and harassment at work, results in characterizing the complainee’s act as a disciplinary offense within the meaning of articles 23, 24 and 25 of the Company's Labor Regulation. This bears the further consequence of initiating the disciplinary procedure provided for in the relevant provisions against the offender and imposing the disciplinary penalties provided for in the Regulation (remark, recommendation, reprimand, fine, even abstention from work). In addition to disciplinary sanctions, there may be a change in the position and working hours, the place or way of providing work, and even termination of the employment contract. Disciplinary proceedings are independent of any criminal proceedings that may be initiated.
In any case, the offender may be subject to criminal or civil liability, in accordance with what is defined in the current legislation.
This policy is applied in parallel with the existing general legislation for the protection of the personality of the employee and does not affect his/her legal rights at the level of civil and criminal legislation, as well as the rights to submit a complaint before the competent authorities.
The Company keeps, in the Human Resources Department of the Company, in electronic or paper form, a file with the necessary security specifications, which includes all complaints received, as well as the documents related to each of them, from the time of their submission and for a minimum period of five (5) years from the date each evidence came into its possession, subject to the provisions of Law 4624/2019. This period is necessary for the effective management of complaints and the rational handling of issues raised, including the procedures for assessing and analyzing incidents, with a view to addressing malfunctions and preventing related incidents in the future, especially those regularly repeated. The period of five (5) years is considered absolutely proportionate in regard to the above purposes and coincides with the statutory limitation period for tort claims.
15.1. Any processing of personal data under this Policy is carried out in accordance with the relevant national and European legislation on personal data. The data of all parties involved is protected and subject to processing only for the purpose of verifying the validity or not of the specific report/complaint and investigating the specific incident.
15.2. If those included in the complaint are not immediately informed of its content, so as to prevent them from actions that would obstruct the investigation, the reasons for the relative delay should be recorded in writing and the document entered in the case file.
15.3. Only those involved in the management and investigation of the incident may have access to the data included in the complaints for the purposes of investigating or managing the complaints. Also, data contained in complaints may be accessed by individuals included in the complaint, witnesses and anyone else with a legitimate interest. When access is granted, the complainer’s and witnesses’ details are withheld, unless they have given explicit consent, and the report / complaint has been proven malicious.
15.4. The Company takes all necessary technical and organizational measures to protect personal data.
16.1. This Policy is reviewed on an annual basis and revised whenever necessary. The Human Resources Department is responsible for its preparation, supervision, proper implementation and suggestions for its revisions. All questions related to the execution or interpretation of this policy, the advisory guidance on issues related to the prevention and response to workplace violence and harassment should be submitted to the Company's Human Resources Department.
Athens, June 11, 2024