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Mobbing

Definition

The term "mobbing" is derived from the English word "to mob" and means to harass, attack, criticize someone.

According to the Convention of 25 June 2009 relating to harassment and violence at work, which was declared a general obligation by the Grand-Ducal regulation of 15 December 2009, moral harassment occurs when a person in the company commits deliberate, repeated and wrongful acts towards a worker or manager, which have as object or effect :

  • either to undermine his or her rights or dignity, or
  • alter his working conditions or compromise his professional future by creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment;
  • or to disturb his physical or mental health.

One of the main features to remember is that a single wrongful act cannot constitute harassment - a repetition is necessary (unless it is discriminatory).
Harassment has nothing to do with "normal" gossip and is not an isolated chicanery.
Harassment goes far beyond that. It is psychological terror in the workplace.
There is as yet no definition in the Luxembourg Labour Code specific to psychological harassment.

Mobbing asbl refers to the list of 45 acts constituting mobbing drawn up by the Swedish sociologist and psychologist Heinz LEYMANN (1932-1999), professor at the University of Stockholm.

Not to be confused!!

The following acts do not constitute psychological harassment:

  • simple circumstances, such as teasing, bad jokes and games between colleagues;
  • the employer's actions, tending to have the employee during a period of incapacity for work checked by his trusted doctor, or the fact of receiving a warning;
  • the normal exercise of the employer's power to control and criticise an employee for not having properly performed the tasks assigned to him and the request to work overtime.

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