Puerto Rico Enacts Law On Workplace Harassment

• Published date: 11 August 2020
• Law Firm: Littler Mendelson
• Author: Ms Anabel Rodríguez-Alonso and Alberto Tabales-Maldonado

On August 7, 2020, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Hon. Wanda V'zquez Garced, signed into law the "Act to Prohibit and Prevent Workplace Harassment in Puerto Rico," previously known as House Bill No. 306. The primary purpose of the Act is to prohibit and prevent abusive conduct against employees in the workplace that affects worker performance, alters workplace peace and threatens the dignity of employees.

The Act defines workplace harassment as actions and behavior that are:

malicious, unwanted, repetitive and abusive; arbitrary unreasonable and/or capricious; verbal, written and/or physical [performed] repeatedly by the employer, his agents, supervisors or employees, oblivious to the legitimate interests of the employer's company, are unwelcome, [violate the employee's] protected...