Case Law Alert: Atmosphere-Based Sexual Harassment

The Paris Court of Appeal found that an employee had suffered discriminatory harassment due to sexist comments and behaviour that amounted to sexual harassment although she was not directly targeted.

The employee maintained that she had been subjected to discriminatory harassment due to sexist comments made to her because she was a woman, which formed part of an atmosphere-based sexual and sexist harassment that had undermined her dignity and created a hostile, degrading, humiliating and offensive environment. She claimed that the deterioration in her working conditions had adversely affected her health.

She complained that her manager had put pressure on her and had acted relentlessly against her after she had reported sexist and discriminatory incidents. She also claimed that she had suffered retaliation for reporting discriminatory harassment.

The Court of Appeal based its decision on Article L. 1142-2-1 of the French Labour Code (protecting employees against sexist behaviour), Article L. 1132-1 of the French Labour Code (punishing discriminatory measures and listing the prohibited grounds for discrimination) and Article 1 of the Law of 27 May 2008 (according to which discrimination includes, in particular, any conduct with a sexual connotation suffered by anyone and having the purpose or effect of undermining their dignity) to conclude that ‘discriminatory harassment therefore results from any conduct linked to a motive prohibited by law which has the purpose or effect of undermining dignity or deteriorating the working environment.’

After analysing the facts, the Court of Appeal found that the employee had indeed suffered discriminatory harassment and ordered the company to pay her compensation. (CA Paris 26-11-2024 no.?21/10408, X. vs. Sté?Oodrive)