articles - Labour and employment law

Mobbing is a particularly harmful and dangerous phenomenon. It adversely affects employees as well as the employer. Mobbing also negatively affects the work atmosphere and thereby assessment of the employer by present and future staff.

The Labour Code defines mobbing in art. 943 § 1 as action or behaviour pertaining to or directed at an employee in the form of persistent and lengthy harassment or intimidation causing underestimation of professional usefulness or resulting in or intended to humiliate or mock an employee or to isolate or eliminate him or her from a team of co-workers.

Whistleblowers are individuals who voluntarily and in good faith report or disclose information about abuse, contributing to the prevention of harm and the detection of public-interest risks and threats that would otherwise remain undetected. Although national institutions and bodies, as well as social organisations, have repeatedly raised the need for regulations to protect such persons, Poland has not yet developed a comprehensive regulation to protect whistleblowers. This is expected to change in the near future, as on 7 October 2019 the Council of the European Union adopted the...

A major change to the Labour Code entered into force on 7 September 2019, making it easier for employees to pursue claims for mobbing. Under Art. 943 of the Polish Labour Code, an employee may seek compensation (zadośćuczynienie) for a detriment to the employee’s health caused by mobbing, as well as damages (odszkodowanie) in an amount no less than the minimum wage. But previously, as a condition for seeking damages, the employee had to terminate the employment on the grounds of mobbing.