Contact: Att. Suleyman Sevinc; Erdem & Erdem (Turkey)
Under Turkish Law, mobbing is a recent concept defined and developed by the jurisprudence of the Court of Cassation. Emotional abuse (mobbing) consists of all types of ill treatment, threats, violence, humiliation, etc., conducted and repeated systematically by other employees, or by the employer to an employee[1]. Besides being a violation of personal rights, mobbing may also mean a violation of liabilities of the employer in accordance with the labor law.
An article entitled "Emotional Abuse in the Workplace According to Turkish Labor Law" that examines mobbing was published in our Newsletter of January, 2010. The present article will assess this notion in accordance with the provisions of new Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098 ("TCO") and the Court of Cassation's recent jurisprudence.
Explicit Provision Adopted by the TCO
Abolished Code of Obligations No. 818 did not contain any specific provision regarding mobbing. However, in practice, claims against mobbing were based on Art. 332 of the Code setting forth the protection of the employee, and abolished Art. 77[2] of the Labor Code ("Labor Code") that set forth health and safety matters concerning employees.
