Explicitly disclosing psychological harassment is no longer necessary to cancel a dismissal caused by that ground

One female employee was dismissed by her employer for reporting psychological harassment against her. It brought an action before the court for annulment of that dismissal in so far as it is not possible to dismiss an employee for complaining of acts of psychological harassment against him, except in bad faith on the part of the employee.

The Court of Appeal upheld the employee’s application and condemned the employer, who appealed to the Court of Cassation on the ground that the employee did not mention the term harassment in the facts complained of.

The Court of Cassation dismisses the appeal. In its view, an employee who complains of psychological harassment cannot be dismissed on that ground, "it is not important that he did not call the said acts psychological harassment when they were reported". That point constitutes a reversal of the case-law since it was previously necessary to explicitly denounce psychological harassment in order to annul a dismissal caused by that ground.

In the present case, the Court has characterized a case of psychological harassment by the existence of a letter in which the employee complains about the conduct of her director which caused a deterioration in her working conditions and her state of health. By this letter, the employer “could not legitimately ignore” denunciation of psychological harassment according to the Court, which here lays down a new condition protecting the employee.