Employment Alert - February 2018

Harassment and suffering at work

Through recent case law, the French Supreme Court recalled to employers their obligations in a situation of harassment or sufferance.

According to judicial decisions, the employer can be exempt from its duty of care in terms of the protection of the health and safety of the employees on the double condition that:

• On the one hand, it takes all necessary preventive measures upstream (such as: adopting a charter, implementing an alert procedure);
• On the other hand, once informed of facts that are likely to constitute a situation of harassment, it must justify having taken immediate measures to stop the situation (such as: internal investigation, mediation between the parties.