According to the Labor Code, the employer is obliged to counteract mobbing. Mobbing means actions or behaviors related to an employee or directed against an employee, consisting in persistent and prolonged harassment or intimidation of an employee, causing him to underestimate his professional suitability, causing or aimed at humiliating or ridiculing the employee, isolating him or eliminating him from the team of colleagues. Therefore, mobbing is, for example, ridiculing, intimidating or isolating from colleagues.
An employee whose mobbing has caused a health disorder may claim an appropriate sum from the employer as financial compensation for the harm suffered. However, health upsets or medical issues cannot be the only indicator that mobbing has taken place.
According to the decision of the Supreme Court of 9 July 2020 (file reference number III PK 112/19), „Mobbing is a complex legal concept. The determination of his occurrence was dependent on the occurrence of a number of behaviors qualified by law in time. This means that the „medical thread” is not independent and determinative. The conviction of an expert doctor that the development of the disease is dictated by the work environment does not prejudge the occurrence of mobbing. The qualification in this regard is not made by an expert doctor, but by a court, after a comprehensive consideration of the facts, and the expert opinion is one of the elements of the evidence”. Moreover, the same provision indicates that „the definition of mobbing under Art. 943 § 2 of the Labor Code has not been linked to health effect. This element occurs only at the claim stage. This means that the definition of mobbing is one thing, and the possibility of seeking redress is another thing. It cannot be ruled out that mobbing will not lead to health disorders, however, the conditions under Art. 943 § 2 of the Labor Code The right to benefit under Art. 933 § 3 of the Labor Code requires the cumulative fulfillment of two factors – the fulfillment of the prerequisites for mobbing, as well as the emergence of a health disorder „.
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