Author: Aslı Turkmen
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Date of Publication: 03/05/2023
Today, there are many mobbing cases in workplaces. For this reason, for instance, Ukraine adopted the Mobbing Prevention Law on 11 December 2022. This way, they tried to provide the necessary legal protection against workplace harassment. In particular, the law has numerous regulations governing the definition of mobbing, its manifestations, and safeguards for workers.
What is Mobbing?
Mobbing is intentional acts or psychological violence aimed at humiliating the reputation and dignity of an employer. So, it creates a hostile, aggressive atmosphere that creates a stressful situation for the employee. Therefore, in this situation, the employee may experience a decrease in potential as they are exposed to bad influence. For this, they can terminate the contract or resign.
Which are the forms of mobbing?
Creating an uncomfortable, unpleasant, or insulting environment around a worker (via threats, jeers, defamation, etc.).
Unnecessarily removing an employee from the team and not being invited to meetings.
İnequality in educational and job opportunities.
Unfair compensation for equally valuable work being done by people with the same credentials.
Unjustified withholding of an employee's premiums or incentives from their compensation.
An employer's unfair distribution of workload and responsibilities among workers doing work of equivalent value.
What are the legal ways to protect an employee?
The law offers many options to combat mobbing. For example, it includes going to court or filing a complaint with the State Labor Service of Ukraine. In fact, the employee has the right to terminate the employment contract within the time frame set by them. This results in a court ruling, if the employer bullies the employee or fails to take the required steps to stop mobbing at work.
Payment for Mobbing
First of all, a victim of mobbing is entitled to severance pay of at least three months' income while quitting their employment to make up for their loss. Additionally, if mobbing resulted in health impairments, an individual may be entitled to the following:
(i) reimbursement for medical expenses and
(ii) compensation for moral harm brought on by mobbing.