The AGG – Protection against discrimination
The General Equal Treatment Act (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz, AGG) has been in force in Germany since 2006. It regulates protection against discrimination, for example on grounds of race, gender, religion, disability, or age. Sexual harassment is also considered a form of discrimination under the AGG.
The AGG defines rights and obligations for both employers and employees. For example, recruitment processes must be free from discrimination, and disadvantages in existing employment relationships must be prevented.
What is sexual harassment?
Under the AGG, sexual harassment is defined as any unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that violates the dignity of the person concerned.
Sexual harassment in the workplace may be linked to abuse of power or occur in combination with other forms of discrimination. Women, BIPoC, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and people with disabilities are particularly affected.
Sexual harassment can take verbal, non-verbal, digital, or physical forms. All forms are prohibited by law in the workplace.
Examples of sexual harassment:
- verbal: sexually suggestive jokes, intrusive or insulting comments
- non-verbal: intrusive staring, catcalling, exhibitionism
- digital: sexualised contact via messaging services or unwanted emails, images, audio recordings, or social media messages with sexual content
- physical: unwanted touching of intimate areas or physical sexualised violence
What forms of discrimination do we address?
Discrimination does not always occur in a single form. Rather, different characteristics often overlap or reinforce one another. This is referred to as multidimensional or intersectional discrimination.
Our counselling focuses on sexual harassment and violence in the workplace—this is where our expertise lies and reflects the mandate of our founders. Our advisors always take an intersectional perspective and consider overlapping forms of discrimination during counselling.
According to our statutes, cases must involve (at least) sexual harassment in the workplace for us to provide counselling. If this is not the case, we will, wherever possible, refer you to other services within our support network.
Why the cultural and media sector?
The cultural and media sector has specific characteristics that can increase the risk of sexual harassment. These include:
- asymmetrical power relations and dependencies
- reliance on personal networks
- time pressure and creative demands
- project-based work and competition
- physical proximity