Workplace mobbing (psychological harassment)

Workplace mobbing is a pattern of continuous and systematic intimidation, exclusion, humiliation and discrediting directed at an employee. Isolated disagreements or the ordinary exercise of managerial authority fall outside the concept; what matters is repetition and the aim of wearing the person down.

Under Turkish law the employer must protect the employee's personality rights, a duty that includes preventing psychological harassment. A mobbed employee may claim non-pecuniary damages, terminate the contract for just cause and, where the conditions are met, retain severance entitlement.

Proof is the main difficulty. Correspondence, reassignment documents, medical reports and witness statements are assessed together, and Turkish courts may accept approximate proof based on the overall course of events.