PREVENTING MORAL HARASSMENT AT WORK - NOWADAYS CHALLENGES

Working conditions are permanently changing across all European countries, and this is mainly due to the development of technology. It is well-known that nowadays workplaces and work practices go through constant changes under the influence of new technology and of shifting economic and social conditions. Given the great variations that are registered from year to year in the very same member state, the harmonisation of the working conditions at the level of the European Union seems to be an objective almost impossible to be reached. The protection of health and safety at work has always been a fundamental preoccupation of the EU labour law-related legislation. Alongside other psychosocial risks, such as stress and violence at work, moral harassment has become one of the main concerns in the field of health and safety at work. The manner in which this phenomenon and the effects such might have on working conditions can be prevented remains however an unanswered key question. This paper aims to outline the levels to which protection could be granted and the measures to be taken to that effect. Specifically, the paper shall first reveal the incidence of moral harassment at work, based on the relevant data collected at the European Union level, following to discuss the necessity of proper, complex and thorough legislative protection against various types of acts of moral harassment at work, both at European and national level. A brief analysis of the existing relevant legislation enacted at the level of the European states outlines that there are countries which had considered upfront this phenomenon and, as a result thereof, conceived a thorough and complex legislative protection against various types of acts of moral harassment at work, while other countries have no dedicated piece of legislation dealing with this matter. Furthermore, the effectiveness of developing an organisational culture with standards and values against this phenomenon shall be assessed. A special attention shall be attributed on the specific means by which such effectiveness could be achieved (awareness trainings for the personnel, implementation of a company policy with clear guidelines for social interaction etc.).