The first official survey on workplace sexual harassment and violence targeting women in Greece was released Monday by the General Confederation of Employees of Greece (GSEE).
To address the lack of data and state accountability in protecting victims, the study found that 31.4% of 876 participants in Greece experienced workplace sexual harassment, 75.3% of whom were women.
Most incidents occurred in the private sector (77.1%), although cases were also present in the public sector (17.8%), spanning all areas of the economy. The perpetrators were often senior colleagues (49.4%), employers (40.4%) or customers (27.1%), with harassment taking physical, verbal, non-verbal and digital forms. Victims reported significant mental health challenges, reduced productivity and, in 24.7% of cases, the need to leave their jobs.
The findings highlighted the severe underreporting of such incidents, with only 1.6% of victims filing official complaints. Reasons for not reporting included mistrust of authorities and the belief that no action would be taken. Furthermore, only 28.5% of respondents said their workplaces had a code of ethics, 21.1% noted the existence of a complaints process and just 3.1% reported a collective agreement addressing sexual harassment.
