Mobbing as a ground for compensation for moral damage to the employee

Abstract

The phenomenon of mobbing, i.e. psychological pressure of employees at the workplace by administration, organizations (groups) of colleagues, is a fairly common problem – according to statistical data, about 30% of employees face mobbing. However, this concept appeared very recently in the labor law of Ukraine – only in 2022, while Sweden was the first EU country to adopt anti-mobbing legislation (in 1993). Till now, there are no scientific works devoted to mobbing as a basis for compensation for moral damage in the labor law of Ukraine, which determines the relevance of our research. Mobbing is one of the forms of human rights discrimination and is related to labor relations. It manifests itself through psychological, economic and other violence, harassment of the employee by colleagues, subordinates or management, negative statements about him/her, spreading false information, etc. In the course of the research, the characteristics, forms, causes of this phenomenon were identified. The rights of the employee who has encountered mobbing were determined. The ways to prove the fact of harassment at the workplace and, consequently, the infliction of moral damage, were proposed; the relevant judicial practice was considered. It was stated that the difficulty of proving a causal relationship in such a category of cases means that the substantiation of a claim requires proper preparation on the part of the victim. The algorithm of the employee’s actions in case of mobbing was formulated.