Information for employers

WARNING !!! automatic translation from Polish

employers

Phenomena of mobbing or discrimination do not always occur as an intentional activity of employers. This often happens without his knowledge and consent, and some employees and their supervisors are involved in these processes. Nevertheless, it is the employer who is responsible for this - including damages. As an employer, it is worth actively preventing the occurrence of these phenomena.

The Labor Code imposes many anti-discrimination obligations on the employer. Some of them are general, such as the obligation to respect the dignity and personal rights of employees (Article 11), or to provide employees with safe and hygienic working conditions (Article 15), in particular. Others list the employer's obligations in detail, e.g. those expressed in art. 94 (including the obligation to apply objective and fair criteria for the assessment of employees and the results of their work), and Article 94 imposes an obligation on the employer to combat mobbing. At the same time, however, the Labor Code does not indicate exactly how employers should prevent and combat such negative phenomena.

In practice, it can be very helpful to develop an in-house document related to these issues, explaining the concepts related to discrimination and mobbing and sensitizing employees to them. Such a document can of course also be more complicated and regulate the anti-discrimination and anti-mobbing policies in the workplace in detail (e.g. by regulating procedures for reporting unwanted events by employees themselves or promotion procedures). Some employers address their employees with a periodic, anonymous survey examining moods in the workplace, which seems to be a good tool to counteract negative phenomena. It is worth bearing in mind various psychological and organizational factors that favor mobbing. It is pointed out, among others, that such a factor is too rigid hierarchy of "power" in the workplace and too autocratic management model - on the other hand, too much liberal management (manifesting in actual lack of employee management) in the workplace can have such an effect. It is also worth ensuring that employees have a defined scope of duties and a defined work organization.