Moral Harassment in employment relationships

 

A new law introducing a mechanism for protection against moral harassment has been voted by the Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg and is on the way to be published in the Luxembourg Gazette (“Journal Official du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg” – Mémorial A)

Luxembourg Labor Law will now include a legal frame to the moral harassment.

The main characteristics of this new law are the following:

• Moral harassment is defined as “any conduct which, by its repetition or systematisation, undermines the dignity or the psychological or physical integrity of a person”.
• Employers’ obligations:
  • The employer must refrain from any moral harassment during the work relationship.
  • The employer must determine, after informing and consulting with the staff delegation, the measures to be taken to protect employees against harassment at work.  These measures must be adapted to the nature of the activities and the size of the company and must cover at least a certain number of points described in the new law.
  • In case the employer becomes aware of any moral harassment, he must carry out an internal assessment of the effectiveness of the preventive measures in place and take measures to ensure that the situation immediately ceases and carry out the possible implementation of new preventive measures, always after consultation with the staff delegation (or, failing that, with the entire staff).
• Protection of the employee victim of moral harassment:
  • The employee concerned (or the staff delegation with the employee's consent) may refer the matter to the Inspection du travail et des mines (“ITM”) if the above measures against harassment are ineffective or non-existent;
  • The employee victim of moral harassment benefits from a special protection against any act of retaliation against the employee, which will be sanctioned by nullity if any;

Criminal penalties: in case of non-compliance with the law relating to moral harassment, penalties may be imposed on employers, employees, customers or suppliers of the employer ranging from 251 EUR to 2.500 EUR;