Case Law Alert: Organisational Harassment

The Court of Appeal had found a company and its main senior managers guilty of 'organisational moral harassment'?on the grounds of Article 222-33-2 of the French Criminal Code, which refers to 'moral harassment in the workplace'.

The Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) was then asked whether the senior managers of a company could be found guilty of 'moral harassment in the workplace'?for having defined and implemented a general corporate strategy liable to lead to a deterioration in employees’ working conditions.

The French Supreme Court has pointed out that, when the aim of the alleged conduct is to worsen working conditions, the offence of moral harassment, provided for in Article 222-33-2 of the Criminal Code, does not require that such conduct affects one or more employees directly linked to the perpetrator, or that the employees who are victims be individually named. On the other hand, when such conduct results in a deterioration in working conditions, the offence of moral harassment requires that the victims of such conduct be specifically identified.

The French Supreme Court has established the principle that, irrespective of any debate on the strategic choices, which are the sole responsibility of the company’s decision-making bodies, a conduct falls within the scope of Article 222-33-2 of the Criminal Code, and may amount to a situation of organisational moral harassment, where it is aimed at deciding and implementing, with full knowledge of the facts, a corporate strategy whose purpose is to deteriorate the working conditions of all or some of the employees in order to downsize or to achieve any other aim, whether of a managerial, economic or financial nature, or where it results in such deterioration liable to violate the rights and dignity of these employees, to alter their physical or mental health or to compromise their professional future. (Cass. crim., 21 Jan. 2025, no. 22-87.145)