The key changes arising from the bill are:

• Mobbing and harassment will be able to consist of physical, verbal and non-verbal elements
• Compensation for a breach of the rule of equal treatment in employment will be higher if the employer commits the breach repeatedly
• In proceedings for infringement of equal treatment, whether they are judicial or intra-enterprise, the employee will only have to give credence to the fact of the infringement (principle of reverse burden of proof)
• Employers will have a duty to counter mobbing and breaches of equal treatment “actively and continuously”, by:
  • applying preventive measures
  • detecting and responding rapidly and appropriately
  • taking corrective actions and supporting persons affected by those negative actions.
• Mobbing will be understood to mean only “behaviour involving persistent persecution of an employee”. Persecution is persistent if it is repeated, recurrent or permanent.
• Manifestations of mobbing will be considered to include:
  • humiliation and derogatory treatment
  • intimidation
  • deprecation of professional suitability
  • unjustified criticism, humiliation or ridicule
  • hampering the person’s functioning in the work environment, isolation.
• Unintentional behaviour towards an employee that could have a specific effect, irrespective of the actual occurrence of that effect, will also be able to be regarded as mobbing.
• In assessing whether a behaviour experienced by an employee constituted mobbing, account will be taken of both the objective impact on the employee and the employee’s subjective feelings or reactions, if reasonable.
• Employers will have to define in a collective bargaining agreement, work regulations or in a notice (in agreement with trade unions or the employees’ representatives) the rules, procedure and frequency of actions in the areas of:
  • preventing the infringement of the dignity and other personal rights of employees
  • equal treatment in employment
  • preventing discrimination
  • countering mobbing.
• Proper compliance with the duty to prevent mobbing will exempt the employer from liability for it. However, this exemption will not apply if the perpetrator of the mobbing is the employee’s manager or a superior of the employee
• The minimum compensation for mobbing is to be the equivalent of six times remuneration.

The bill will now be the subject of public consultations.