Employment and Industrial Relations Act (Cap. 452)

Employment and Industrial Relations Act (Cap. 452), article 29A

Official PDF on legislation.mt

29A. (1) Violence and harassment in a work environment shall be prohibited. Employees and employe rs shall endeavour to respect each other’s right to a work enviro nment free from violence and harassment. (2) For the purposes of this article, the term: (a) "employee" means: (i) an employee; (ii) a person in training, including interns, trainees, and apprentices, irrespective of whether the work is regulated by a contract, or the person is paid or unpaid; (iii) a person whose employment has been terminated; Cap. 492. (iv) a volunteer in terms of article 2(1) of the V oluntary Organisations Act , even when such work or service is not regulated by a specific contract of service; (v) a person who is a prospective employee on the basis that he is seeking employment; (vi) a person who is a prospective employee on the basis that he is an applicant for employment; (vii) a person who is a prospective employee on the basis that he is a candidate for employment; (b) "work environment" means: (i) any workplace, including any space where work duties are performed, irrespective of its nature and whether it is public or private; (ii) any place where the worker is paid, takes a rest break or a meal, or makes use of sanitary, washing and changing facilities; (iii) any work-related trip, travel, training, events or social activities; (iv) through work-related communications, including those carried out using information and communication technologies; (v) any accommodation provided by the employer; (vi) any trip when a person commutes to and from work; (c) "violence and harassment" means unacceptable behaviour, practices and omissions, or threats thereof, EMPLOYMENT AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS [ CAP. 452. 23 whether a single occurrence or repeated, that target, result in, or are likely to result in, physical, psychological, sexual or economic harm or suffering, and includes gender-based violence and harassment; Cap. 581. (d) "gender-based violence and harass-ment" means violence and harassment of a person by reason of their sex or gender, or which disproportionately affects persons of a particular sex or gender, and shall include "sexual harassment" as described in article 29, and "gender" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it by article 2 of the Gender-Based Violence and Domestic Violence Act . (3) It shall not be lawful for an employer or an employee to act towards an employee, the employer, another employee or a prospe ctive employee in a manner that is equivalent to violence and harassm ent in a work environment. Such actions may take any form, including b ut not limited to, requests, conduct, behaviour or interactions, w hether physical, remote or online, and whether expressed orally, in wr iting, through images or by any ot her means or materials. (4) It shall not be lawful for an employer or an employee to giv e rise to a circumstance or create an environment that permits or could permit violence or harassment in a work environment, or that ma y cause an employee, the employer, another employee o r a p r o sp e ct i v e e m p l o y e e to feel uncomfortable or intimated, o r to be subjected to a n o f f e n s i v e o r a b u s i v e a t m o s p h e r e , o r t h a t breaches their right to a work e nvironment free from violence a nd harassment. Reference to Industrial Tribunal. Amended by: IX. 2003.123; V . 2009.3; XI.2026.4.

Have a question about the law?

The assistant answers from the same library and names the article it relies on.

Ask Margos AI →

Text read from the consolidated PDF published by Legislation Malta. Tables, figures and marginal notes may be incomplete or out of place: the official PDF is authoritative. General information, not legal, tax or accounting advice.