According to Art. 943 § 3 of the Labor Code, an employee whose mobbing has caused a health disorder may claim an appropriate sum from the employer as compensation for the harm suffered. This provision creates a property mechanism for legal protection of the employee’s health in the work environment, known under the Civil Code.
In its judgment of February 22, 2017 (file no. III APa 26/16), the Court of Appeal in Poznań considered what situations could not qualify as health disorders.
In the justification of the judgment, the court stressed that the compensation is due only for health impairment. He pointed out that not every mental health violation caused by mobbing can be classified as a health disorder. The court noted the existence of mental health violations, which, however, will not constitute a disorder of qualified health in medical terms.
The violations mentioned include: negative mental experiences, nuisance and unpleasantness felt by the injured person. In the opinion of the court, the violation of personal interests (as provided for in Article 448 of the Civil Code) is not enough in this case.
It must not be forgotten that the burden of proving health disorder rests on the claimant. This means that the employee will have to prove in court that he has a medical disorder.
An example illustrating the described principle may be the employee’s situation in the case at hand. He was diagnosed with depression, but the court found that the disease was related to his general life situation and did not justify the award of compensation under Art. 943 § 3 of the Labor Code. Health disorders should be in a close causal relationship with mobbing, while other negative feelings and unpleasantness of the employee do not fall within the definition of health disorder.
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