Management methods within a company that have the effect of degrading an employee’s working conditions and are likely to affect their physical or mental health constitute psychological harassment. Employees are not required to prove that they were personally targeted by this harassment. ‘Managerial harassment’ affects all staff, or at least does not target any one person in particular.
However, this does not mean that an employee who claims to have been harassed does not have to prove that they were personally subjected to such behaviour.
In this case, sales assistants at a wedding dress shop collectively complained to their employer about harassment they had suffered at the hands of two managers. One of these employees was dismissed. When challenging her dismissal, she claimed to have been the victim of harassment. The Court of Cassation ruled that she did not have to prove that she had been personally targeted by the harassment these management methods caused. It was sufficient for her to demonstrate that she had been affected by these methods for the harassment to be recognised.
