Documents

Complaint to your employer about harassment at work

A colleague or a manager makes a target of you for being LGBTI.

Verified 14 August 2026

This letter tells your employer: this is happening, this person is doing it, these people saw it. The law obliges him to investigate at once, stop it, and discipline the person if they work for him. Not a complaint to the state, not a court claim — the first piece of paper with a date and a filing number. It proves your employer knew.

Goes to: To your employer — through the registry office, the front office or HR. On paper, signed in ink, in two copies. Not by unsigned email.
Who else reads it: The person it is about: the investigation works by hearing them out, and from then on they know there is a signed paper with your name on it. Plus the registry, HR, the manager and almost always the company’s lawyer. In a twelve-person office, everyone.
Can this be taken back: You can withdraw the complaint at any time. You cannot make your employer un-know it.
Deadline: No deadline for you. The employer’s is „незабавно“ — immediately, with no number of days on it. The other clock: if this ends in dismissal you have 2 months from termination (чл. 358, ал. 1, т. 2 КТ).
Legal basis: чл. 17 ЗЗДискр: an employer who receives a complaint of harassment at the workplace must investigate immediately, take measures to stop it, and impose disciplinary liability if the perpetrator works for him. Around it: чл. 18 (he must prevent discrimination), чл. 5 (harassment is discrimination), § 1, т. 1 and т. 2 of the Supplementary Provisions (what harassment and sexual harassment are).

Before you send it

Not on a work computer, not over the office Wi-Fi. The network sees which page you opened.
The investigation outs you: the employer must question people, by name, about things said about you. In a small office or workshop everyone knows by Thursday. Settle it with yourself first — there is no way back.
Facts and exact words only: date, place, who was there, what was said — verbatim, in quotation marks, slurs included. No „constantly“, no „everyone“, no adjectives. There is a legal reason: the burden shifts to the employer only once you have presented facts from which discrimination may be inferred (чл. 9 ЗЗДискр).
Do not out anybody else: no LGBTI colleagues by name, nobody’s HIV status, nobody else’s relationship. This reaches your employer and his lawyer.
If it is already physical, or the perpetrator is the owner, this letter is not your first step: it sets the employer against the perpetrator, and when they are the same person you are handing them a signed list of what you know. With violence the order is: 112, a doctor the same day for a medical certificate, a lawyer, and only then paper. Know the cost: a report of a state-prosecuted offence cannot be withdrawn, even if you change your mind.
Ask a lawyer how to plead the ground. Two things not to decide alone: § 1, т. 8 of the Supplementary Provisions covers a presumed characteristic and association with another person; and gender identity is not among those listed in чл. 4, ал. 1, though the list ends open. „Действие“ answer for free: legal@deystvie.org.

What happens after you file it

Silence first, then a lawyer. From HR the complaint goes to the company’s lawyer, whose job is to protect the employer, not you.
The accused finds out: he is heard, that is how the investigation works. The chill in the corridor is part of the procedure.
A demand for written explanations under чл. 193 КТ about something else entirely — lateness, a report, the tone of an email nobody minded for two years. The standard counter-move. Answer in writing, on time, and keep a receipted copy.
A „reorganisation“ a few weeks later: dismissal under чл. 328, ал. 1, т. 2 or т. 3 КТ, lawful-looking, landing exactly on your post. If it gets that far you stop writing letters and go to a lawyer — 2 months from termination (чл. 358, ал. 1, т. 2 КТ).
The law calls this преследване — victimisation — and treats it as discrimination (§ 1, т. 3, чл. 5 ЗЗДискр). But a prohibition does not pay rent. Do that sum before you file.

Have you been dismissed, or has an order been served on you — a dismissal or a disciplinary sanction?

Stop. Your clock is a different one now.

Dismissal: 2 months from termination (чл. 358, ал. 1, т. 2 КТ). An order imposing a reprimand: 1 month from service (чл. 358, ал. 1, т. 1 КТ). A warning of dismissal: 2 months. Yours can be read off the order itself — take it to the lawyer.

Not the three-year deadline at the Commission. Different doors, different clocks, and one does not stop the other. This is exactly where people lose their cases.

This letter is written while you are still employed. It is not the document for your situation.

Go to a lawyer this week. „Действие“ do it for free: legal@deystvie.org.

What you type here stays here

The form has nowhere to submit to: the rule form-action 'none' in the site's security policy forbids your browser from submitting it anywhere at all. We receive nothing, and could not.

But the network sees that you opened the page. Do not open this on a work or school device, and not over the work Wi-Fi.

The document

To [ the employer’s name ] through the registry office

COMPLAINT of harassment at the workplace, on the basis of чл. 17 of the Protection against Discrimination Act

from [ your full name ], employed as [ job title ] [ department, unit or site ] contact telephone: [ telephone ] address for correspondence: [ address for correspondence ]

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to you in your capacity as my employer. I consider that I am being subjected to harassment at the workplace, and I file this complaint under чл. 17 of the Protection against Discrimination Act.

I. WHAT IS HAPPENING

[ by date: when, where, exactly what was said or done, who was present ]

II. BY WHOM

[ name, position, and whether he is your manager ]

III. WITNESSES AND EVIDENCE

[ who saw or heard it, and what you have kept ]

IV. HOW I QUALIFY IT

Variant — Harassment because I am LGBTI — on a protected ground

The above constitutes harassment within the meaning of § 1, т. 1 of the Supplementary Provisions of the Protection against Discrimination Act, on a ground under чл. 4, ал. 1 of the Act — sexual orientation. Under чл. 5 of the Act, harassment on a protected ground counts as discrimination.

Variant — Conduct of a sexual nature — sexual harassment

The above constitutes sexual harassment within the meaning of § 1, т. 2 of the Supplementary Provisions of the Protection against Discrimination Act — unwanted conduct of a sexual nature. For this the Act requires no ground under чл. 4, ал. 1. Under чл. 5 of the Act, sexual harassment counts as discrimination.

V. WHAT I ASK YOU TO DO

On the basis of чл. 17 of the Protection against Discrimination Act, I ask you:

1. to carry out an immediate investigation into this complaint;
2. to take measures to stop the conduct described above;
3. to impose disciplinary liability on the perpetrator, if he is a worker or employee of yours;
4. to notify me in writing of the outcome of the investigation and of the measures taken, at the address for correspondence given above;
5. not to place me in a less favourable position for having filed this complaint. Victimisation of a person who has taken action against discrimination counts as discrimination under чл. 5 in conjunction with § 1, т. 3 of the Supplementary Provisions.

I would remind you that under чл. 18 of the Act the employer must take effective measures to prevent all forms of discrimination at the workplace.

VI. ATTACHMENTS

[ a numbered list of what you are attaching ]

Date: [ date ]

Signature: ______________________

[ your full name ]

No printer? Print the blank form at a copy shop and fill it in by hand — a handwritten document is just as valid. It is also the safest: no file, no print queue, no Downloads folder.

Before you press Print: untick "Headers and footers" in the print settings. Otherwise the page title and the site address appear on the sheet — and whoever receives the document sees them.

How to file it so that it counts

Ask for a filing number — without one you have no proof you filed anything, and any later victimisation claim rests on the employer having known. Take two copies: one stays with them, the other comes back with a number and a date.
If they refuse a number, post it with acknowledgment of receipt, through a licensed postal operator, to the company’s registered address. The receipt does the same job.
Keep the receipted copy and photograph it the same day. Do not leave the photograph only on the phone you carry into work.
Do not wait for the investigation — the law gives the employer no deadline. If this ends in dismissal, your deadline is 2 months (чл. 358, ал. 1, т. 2 КТ), and it runs while they „are still looking into it“.
Sign nothing on the spot. On a mutual-consent offer you have 7 days and silence counts as refusal (чл. 325, ал. 1, т. 1 КТ). Sign, and there is no dismissal left to challenge.

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