What is Mobbing (Psychological Harassment)? Its Place in Labor Law and Your Rights

One of the most exhausting problems of modern working life, mobbing, or psychological harassment in the workplace, is a serious injustice targeting the employee’s dignity, mental health, and professional career. Mobbing, which is much more than a momentary outburst of anger or a disagreement, is a systematic and continuous policy of intimidation. Turkish Law recognizes mobbing as a violation of personal rights and offers significant legal rights to victims. In this article, we explain what behaviors count as mobbing, how you can prove this situation, and the legal rights you possess.

What Exactly is Mobbing (Psychological Harassment)? In the light of Supreme Court (Yargıtay) decisions, mobbing refers to all kinds of ill-treatment, threats, violence, and humiliation directed by one or more persons towards another person, systematically and over a certain period, with the aim of intimidation, pacification, or alienation from the job.

For a behavior to be considered mobbing, three main elements must coexist:

1. Systematic Nature: The behaviors are not coincidental but repeated consciously and planned.

2. Continuity: These behaviors are not momentary but spread over a certain period (usually at least a few months).

3. Intent to Intimidate: The primary goal is to wear down the employee, psychologically break them, and ultimately force them to leave the job.

Which Behaviors Fall Under the Scope of Mobbing? Mobbing can manifest in many different ways. Common examples include:

• Cutting Off Communication: Ignoring the employee, not greeting them, not inviting them to meetings, not replying to emails.

• Social Isolation: Preventing them from speaking with other employees, spreading gossip about them, treating them “as if they don’t exist.”

• Attacks on Professional Competence: Constant unjust criticism, deliberately providing wrong information, pacifying them by assigning tasks below their skills or unrelated to their expertise.

• Attacks on Reputation: Mocking behind their back, spreading baseless rumors, humiliating them due to their religious or political views.

• Threats to Health: Constantly shouting, threatening, or endangering their physical and mental health by assigning a workload far beyond their capacity.

Legal Rights of Employees Subjected to Mobbing An employee subjected to mobbing in the workplace has significant rights protected by law:

1. Right to Terminate Employment Contract for Just Cause: Mobbing is a “just cause for termination” for the employee under Labor Law Article 24. In this case, the employee can terminate the employment contract immediately without waiting for the notice period. An employee who leaves in this way is entitled to severance pay.

2. Right to File for Moral Compensation: Since mobbing is an attack on the employee’s personal rights, the victim has the right to file a lawsuit for non-pecuniary (moral) damages against the employer due to the sorrow, stress, and mental breakdown experienced.

3. Right to File for Material Compensation: Material damages, such as psychological treatment costs incurred due to mobbing, can also be claimed from the employer.

4. Claiming Discrimination Compensation: The employer has a duty to protect employees and treat them equally. Against an employer who condones or does not prevent mobbing, “discrimination compensation” can also be claimed due to the violation of the principle of equality in the Code of Obligations and Labor Law.

How is Mobbing Proved? Proving mobbing can be challenging because perpetrators usually try not to leave concrete evidence behind. However, the Supreme Court facilitates the employee by adopting the principle of “approximate proof” in this regard. Presenting strong indications of the existence of mobbing may be considered sufficient.

• Evidence: Emails, internal correspondence, messages, witness statements (statements of former employees are especially important), declarations of other employees who experienced similar situations, health reports (anxiety caused by stress, depression, etc.), sudden and unexplained drops in performance evaluations, and kept diaries can be used in proving mobbing.

Conclusion Remember, no one has to endure systematic psychological harassment in the workplace. If you think you are being subjected to mobbing, start taking notes of the events with dates and details and collect the evidence you have. Getting support from a labor law lawyer at the very beginning of the process will guide you to seek your rights correctly and completely and will be your greatest assurance in this difficult process.