SUBJECT: Health and Safety at Work (Violence and Intimidation Phenomena in ASSY)
RELATED : Law 3850/2010 (Government Gazette A’ 84, “Sanction of the Code of Laws on the health and safety of workers”)
Mr. Minister.
Recently, our Federation became aware of an incident, which, since it is valid to the full extent with which it was published, we consider it to be particularly serious, since it concerns a cap on a first-year student of the Permanent Naval Officers’ School, who was ultimately forced to resign.
According to the complaint, the hood allegedly included actions ranging from sexist bullying to outright sexual harassment, as well as beatings through “competition”, targeting and moral harassment.
At this point we must point out the following:
a. The years of study at ASSY are included in the career of the executives, therefore students must be considered employees from the point of view of Health and Safety at Work. In this sense, they are subject to the provisions of the relevant Code (KNYAE). Additionally, we mention that ASSY are Schools of Higher Education.
b. With Law 4808/2021 (A’ 101), a European directive was incorporated into Greek Law, which, among other things, establishes measures against violence and intimidation (thus also a consequence of bullying).
c. Even if “reservations” are expressed about the inclusion of ASSY in the aforementioned provisions of the KNYAE, article 312 of the Civil Code exists as well as the recent law 5029/2023 (A’ 55) on school violence.
In short, from the above it is clear that, from whatever angle one approaches the “regime” that governs ASSY students in terms of Health and Safety, neither bullying nor bullying in general is justified, let alone when it even goes beyond the limits of humiliation.
Unfortunately, the complaint contains another serious extension, since there is talk of its complete discredit by the traditional media. Apparently this is why we only read about the event on a website that deals with ED issues and which, traditionally, seems to “use” complaints in a rather sophisticated way, which, unfortunately, comes second to the facts that led a freshman with high grades to choose to drop out and thereby miss out (academically) on a year that saw his hard work rewarded.
Mr. Minister.
For a student who has now resigned and for whom, as a resigned student, there is no legal framework for his return to the School, first of all it must be admitted that it is considered difficult for the termination to have been made for negotiation reasons. In addition to this, for there to have been a waiver (ie an indisputable fact) something very serious must have intervened. If the student simply “didn’t make it” for the Navy, we find it unlikely that there would have been such mobilization from his family, since it is clear that the letter contains bitterness and resentment. Therefore, it is clear that there is smoke and certainly there is fire. What needs to be found is what kind of fire it is and how dangerous it is.
Under other circumstances, we would consider it sufficient to comment that in the ED of 2023, with the problem of understaffing plaguing every Unit, there is no luxury of resignations at any level and certainly in the productive Schools. In the light of the complaints, however, unfortunately the resignation can be justified and this is the most worrying. Such incidents are unthinkable to happen. We therefore request you to order an immediate investigation of the complainants in a manner that ensures impartiality and objectivity.
We remain at your disposal for any clarification or information.
Messrs. Members of the Hellenic Parliament, to whom this is communicated, are requested to highlight the matter, through parliamentary control.
Read the original at Defence247.gr
