The employer must make every effort to ensure your safety and health, including mental health, at work. If you resign in a context of worsening mental health, it is possible, if the employer has done nothing to prevent it, that your resignation could be analyzed as a dismissal at the employer's expense. That is what the Court of Cassation reminds us.
Hired in a company since 1984, an employee resigned in 2013.
It brought an action before the tribunal prud’homale to have that resignation reclassified as dismissal without real and serious cause.
In the months preceding this resignation, the employee had informed her employer of a deterioration in her health, in particular mental health, resulting from possible psychological harassment on the part of her superior, but also from the recent dismissal of her spouse.
Although psychological harassment was not established by the Court of Appeal, the Court of Cassation held that the employer did not take all the measures, including preventive measures, to ensure the mental health of the employee. The resignation must therefore be reclassified as dismissal at the employer's expense and the corresponding sums paid to the employer.
