Mobbing – Polish perspective

Pursuant to last researches in Poland – over 40 percent of all employees in our country are permanently or have at least once been experienced with a negative social phenomena called “mobbing”. The numbers are terrifying! 40 percent of all employees! That is almost a half of all people employed in a nearly 40-million country! The other 60 percent, involved in the process only as observers, bystanders, or perpetrators (though occasionally also as rescuers or guardians of the target), mostly deny, gloss over, and forget the mobbing cases in which they have taken part. That is the main reason it has taken so many years for the phenomenon to be identified, researched and which is the most important – intentionally noticed. According to what was written hereinabove some questions must be put: is it not an exaggeration? Can all non-competent, non-professional or just “friendly” behaviours and actions of employers be simply considered as acts of mobbing? How do Polish courts adjudicate in such cases?

     Professional literature often points five basic stages of this social phenomenon. As its potential basis, unresolved conflict between co-workers occurs in the first phase of mobbing, with consequently disturbed interpersonal relations. Original conflict is soon forgotten, while the remaining aggressive tendencies are directed toward the chosen target. In the second phase the suppressed aggression escalates to psycho-terror. In the turmoil of intrigues, humiliations, threats, psychological abuse and torture, victims lose their professional and human dignity. They begin to feel, and finally really become, less valued persons who lose the reputation, support, ant the right to speak. After that the already designated and continuously abused person becomes a “punchbag”, a “scapegoat” guilty of all failures and wrongdoings in the team. The fourth phase is characterized by desperate victim’s “fight for survival” and the occurrence of the burn-out syndrome, that is of the chronic fatigue syndrome and psychosomatic and depressive disturbances. Finally in the last, fifth phase mostly after having been terrorized for several years, the victims become affected by chronic diseases and disturbances, they leave their jobs or even in the most drastic circumstances resort to suicide.

      It must be stressed that the term “mobbing” has existed in Polish law system only for four years. In accordance with Polish Labour Code mobbing means actions or behaviour referring to an employee, or directed against an employee, comprising persistent and drawn-out harassment or intimidation of that employee. Such actions or behaviour have the effect that the employee’s own assessment of his/her vocational value is compromised, causing – or aimed at – humiliation or ridicule of the employee and/or his/her isolation or elimination from the workplace team. The above-mentioned definition contains many unclear and undetermined terms, which – in practice – brings out irregularities in the use of this standard.

       In literature it is accepted that single acts of psychological abuse or humiliation of  a person can not be acknowledged as mobbing.  The standards of Labour Code states that such behaviour should be persistent and long-lasting. In the opinion of Polish Supreme Court the aforementioned prerequisites must be always fulfilled jointly. Judicial decisions in the area of long-standing mobbing assume that those activities should occur at least once a week, during at least six months. However, I would like to point that Supreme Court has lately presented a view, that it is impossible to stiffly define the minimal period of time for mobbing to exist or not exist. In conclusion, if the acts of an employer are not simultaneously persistent and long-lasting and cause no harm to an employee, they are not acts of mobbing within the meaning of Polish labour and employment law.  

     The definition excludes temporary conflicts and focuses on the breaking point where the psychosocial situation begins to result in psychiatrically or psychosomatically pathological conditions. In other words, the distinction between "conflict" and "mobbing", to emphasize the concept again, does focus not only on what is done or how it is done, but also on the frequency and duration of what is done. The Labour Code does not directly mentions about any breaches of personal rights such as dignity or health. However, it is beyond any doubt that mobbing acts concern mental and psychosomatic stress of a certain type in the workplace, its results, its pathological conditions and the sick leave that it sometimes causes. The scientific definition of the term mobbing thus refers to a social interaction, through which one individual (seldom more than one) is attacked by one or more (seldom more than four) individuals on almost a daily basis and for periods of many months, forcing the person into an almost helpless position with a potentially high risk of expulsion.

In connection with the above,  there appears a problem,  if temporary conflicts, disciplining or just ordinary issuing orders can be acknowledged as mobbing. As the practice shows, many employers instructions and other, perhaps non-professional actions are incorrectly recognized by employees as mobbing acts. The verdict of the Supreme Court states, that issuing connected with work orders, which are in conformity with the law - especially with Labour and Employment Code – is not mobbing. Even the decisions about redundancies on a massive scale in big corporations or factories, which, without doubt, are very stressful for the employees are not mobbing and are not contained in  its definition in Polish law system.

On the other hand, I can easily imagine a situation when the boss uses mobbing in acts which are in accordance with the law, as for example giving humiliating orders. It is obvious – as Supreme Court verdicts – that assessment of each behaviour of an employer should be considered objectively in each individual case each time. In conclusion the hereinabove mentioned actions should be clearly distinguished and not lead to misunderstandings.

    Consequences of harassments and intimidations of that employee which cause humiliation  of him are  another important element of Polish mobbing definition . It must be expressly stressed that it comes to evoke a result, which becomes not only a subjective feeling of a victim but it can act only for this purpose as well. In the grounds to the sentence  from 5^th November 2007, the Supreme Court stated that to acknowledge an action as a mobbing act it must be duly stated that this behaviour objectively causes one of the effects stated in the legal definition. Taking such a solution will eliminate cases of excessively sensitive employees.

    In conclusion, Polish legal definition of mobbing creates many practical problems with its use. Despite this, it provides good legal protection of the employees, which however is sometimes abused. It occurs that although during a short time of the norms being in practice (four years till today) courts have already solved many problems and misunderstandings connected, I can assume that much more is still waiting to be done.  Finally, I must stress one more time, that mobbing-cases are very difficult to identify and each of them must be considered individually.

Karol Obrębski