What role can or should the OHS service play in counteracting mobbing?
The role of every employer is to comply with the principles of social coexistence in the workplace as well as to respect the dignity of employees and other personal rights to which they are entitled. However, such an ideal resulting from the regulations is not always achieved. The workplace is a kind of „arena” where the interests of the employer and the employees clash, and the role of the labour law is to ensure the relative peace of these relations. This is achieved through the basic principles of labour law and the rights and obligations of the employer and the employee resulting from the provisions of the labour law.
In addition to incidental incidents bearing the hallmarks of unequal treatment, violation of dignity, principles of social coexistence or company customs, intensified, negative actions directed towards a given person or persons may take place in the company.
If they result in a lowered assessment of professional suitability or are aimed at humiliating or ridiculing an employee, isolating or eliminating him or her from the team of co-workers, and in addition, the proceedings against the employee are long-term or persistent, then it can be said to be mobbing.
An employer should not treat mobbing as a circumstance that is part of the company’s customs or occupational risk calculated into the specificity of a given profession or specialty. It is their absolute duty to counteract mobbing – regardless of whether this phenomenon occurs in the company or not. Indisputably, the signs of mobbing are not indifferent to the employee. This is because they have an impact on both professional life and the broadly understood non-professional sphere. The stress associated with the work environment in which mobbing occurs not only causes a much greater risk of performing work in unsatisfactory quantity and quality, but is also associated with health consequences, including an increased risk of an accident at work.
The employer fulfils the obligation to counteract mobbing with the help of subordinate employees – for example, those who are part of HR units, HR departments or direct superiors of employees. Usually, counteracting mobbing therefore requires broader cooperation.
As already mentioned, mobbing is not a circumstance indifferent to the correctness and safety of the work process. Taking into account the lack of direct visibility of the role of the OHS service in the prevention of mobbing, it should be noted that the tasks of the OHS service include, in particular:
- carrying out inspections of working conditions and compliance with health and safety regulations and rules,
- informing the employer on an ongoing basis about identified occupational hazards,
- participation in the development of company regulations in the field of health and safety,
- participation in risk assessment.
Taking into account the above, the selected scope of duties of the OHS service, it can be assumed that counteracting mobbing cannot be a completely indifferent matter for employees of OHS units. Since the role of the OHS service is to control broadly understood working conditions, including informing the employer on an ongoing basis about the identified risks (it should be assumed that also psychosocial hazards), the phenomenon of mobbing leading to occupational stress affecting the safety of employees should be of interest to the OHS service. Therefore, it can be assumed that the employer has the right to involve OHS employees in the process of counteracting mobbing – where it has or may have an impact on the safety of employees.
It cannot be ruled out that the employees of a given OHS unit, taking into account the already large number of tasks directly imposed by the regulations, will not be interested in additional involvement in anti-mobbing activities. In extreme cases, employees of the OHS service may notify the National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) in the complaint procedure that the employer burdens them with duties that do not fall within the tasks of the OHS service, which result directly from the regulations. However, before the OHS unit decides to notify the inspection, it should make a broad calculation of the possible consequences of its action. The complaint will result in the initiation of control proceedings regarding the functioning of the OHS service in the plant, including the issue of the proper performance of the OHS unit’s duties by the employees of the OHS unit.
Author: Sebastian Kryczka
Supported by Norway through Norway Grants 2014-2021, in the frame of the Programme “Social Dialogue – Decent Work”.
