Ley N.º 18.561 — Uruguay's Pioneering Workplace Sexual Harassment Law

Ley N.o 18.561, enacted in 2009 and further regulated in 2017, was one of Latin America's first laws to specifically define and sanction sexual harassment in employment and teacher-student relationships, covering both public- and private-sector workplaces. It gives Uruguay's Inspeccion General del Trabajo y de la Seguridad Social (IGTSS) authority to receive and investigate complaints across the whole economy, with trade unions also empowered to receive and forward complaints on workers' behalf. Victims found to have suffered harassment are entitled to minimum compensation equivalent to six months' salary, and any dismissal within 180 days of filing a complaint is legally presumed to be retaliatory.
The IGTSS has tracked complaint volumes for years: in 2025 it registered 601 complaints of workplace and sexual harassment combined, according to data obtained through public-records requests by KPMG Uruguay. Sexual-harassment complaints specifically fell 31% and general workplace-harassment complaints fell 8% compared with 2024 — yet both remained above the average of the previous seven years, indicating a persistently high underlying caseload rather than a one-off spike.
KPMG's own legal analysis, reported alongside the 2025 figures, cautioned that official numbers 'significantly undercount actual incidents': fear of losing one's job, shame — particularly around sexual-harassment cases — and the difficulty of confronting the situation keep many victims from ever filing a formal complaint. Uruguay also still has no dedicated statute for general workplace ('moral') harassment, which is addressed only through international conventions rather than domestic legislation.

Read the full analysis: https://radiocarve.uy/denuncias-por-acoso-laboral-y-sexual-bajaron-en-2025-pero-siguen-por-encima-del-promedio-historico/