Mobbing (Psychological Harassment at Work) — Definition, Proof and Rights

What is mobbing, how is it proved and what are the employee's rights? A guide to the legal protections, compensation and complaint routes against psychological harassment at work.

What Is Mobbing (Psychological Harassment at Work) and How Is It Defined in Law?

Psychological harassment at work is a body of continuing and systematic conduct generally directed at intimidating, excluding or driving out a particular person. The statute lays down no fixed threshold such as “at least six months” or “once a week”.

Not every management decision, performance criticism, disagreement or one-off discourtesy is mobbing. Conversely, even where a single act does not amount to mobbing, it may constitute discrimination, insult, threat, sexual harassment or a violation of personality rights. The purpose of the conduct, its repetition, its context, its effect on the employee and whether the employer exercised its managerial power proportionately are examined together.

Article 417 of the Code of Obligations imposes on the employer a duty to protect the employee's personality and to take measures against psychological and sexual harassment. Labour Law art. 5, Law no. 6331 and arts. 24-25 of the Civil Code may also apply according to the nature of the case. Presidential Circular no. 2025/3 of 6 March 2025 sets out the current institutional framework for prevention.

Article 417 of Turkish Code of Obligations no. 6098 expressly regulates the employer's duty to protect the employee's personality. Under that article, the employer must protect and respect the employee's personality in the employment relationship, maintain an order at the workplace consistent with the principles of good faith, and in particular take the measures necessary to ensure that employees are not subjected to psychological or sexual harassment and that those who have been do not suffer further harm.

Labour Law art. 5 regulates equal treatment and the prohibition of discrimination. Where mobbing is carried out on discriminatory grounds this provision may also come into play; but not every breach of equal treatment is mobbing, and not every instance of mobbing is necessarily discrimination within art. 5. Article 17 of the Constitution guarantees the right to protect and develop one's material and moral existence. In allegations of psychological harassment caused by public authorities or arising in private law relationships, the State's obligations of protection, effective investigation and judicial redress arise according to the nature of the particular case.

What Are the Elements of Mobbing and Which Conduct Counts?

In assessing psychological harassment, the connection of the conduct with the employment relationship, whether it targets a particular person or persons, whether it forms a systematic or repeated pattern, its duration and gravity, and its effect on the person's dignity, health or working environment are examined together. An intention to drive the person out may be a strong indicator; but it is not treated as the single, mandatory purpose that must be expressly proved in every case.

The conduct constituting mobbing can take various forms. These include obstructing communication, attacks on social relationships, damage to reputation, targeting of professional standing, and conduct directly affecting health.

Examples of obstructing communication include constantly interrupting the employee, not inviting them to meetings, removing them from email lists, and cutting off oral or written communication. Such conduct is aimed at isolating the employee socially.

Attacks on social relationships include isolating the employee from other staff, placing them in a separate room, obstructing communication with colleagues, and excluding them from common areas.

Damage to reputation includes spreading unfounded rumours about the employee, giving them demeaning nicknames, mocking their physical appearance, and disclosing details of their private life.

Targeting of professional standing includes giving the employee work below their qualifications, giving them no work at all, constantly changing their duties, ignoring their achievements, constantly criticising their work, and setting impossible targets.

A single instance of negative conduct, or the ordinary friction of working life, will often not constitute a pattern of mobbing; the systematic nature, continuity or repetition of the conduct and its effect on the target are examined together. Even where a single act is not mobbing, it may, depending on its gravity, amount to a separate violation of personality rights, discrimination or a just cause for termination.

How Is Mobbing Proved and Who Bears the Burden of Proof?

Under art. 190 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the general burden of proof lies on the party who derives a favourable consequence from their allegation. Because mobbing can take place behind closed doors, mutually corroborating indicators are assessed together: e-mails and messages, changes of duties, records, performance files, witnesses, medical records and written complaints.

The assessment of such indicators does not mean that the burden of proof automatically shifts to the employer in every file. In discrimination within Labour Law art. 5, if the employee establishes a situation strongly indicating a breach, a burden may arise on the employer to prove the contrary; this special rule does not apply in the same way to every allegation of mobbing.

Evidence must be obtained lawfully. A covert audio recording is not lawful in every case; narrow conditions such as a suddenly developing attack, the absence of other evidential means and proportionality are examined concretely in both criminal and civil terms. Documents containing personal data must be used only for the purpose for which they were obtained. In an allegation of psychological harassment, e-mails and messages, duty and performance records, minutes, witness statements, camera footage and medical documents may be assessed together. All evidence, including audio or video recordings, must be obtained lawfully. The existence of a single document may not on its own prove continuity, targeting and a violation of personality rights.

Medical records may show the effect on the person's health; but they do not on their own conclusively prove that the condition was caused by particular conduct at the workplace. Causation is assessed by reference to the chronology, prior state of health, workplace records and the other evidence.

Recording dates, places, events, the persons involved and witnesses in an orderly way can help to make the allegation concrete. A note made by the person themselves is not conclusive evidence on its own; corroboration by external records and lawful protection of personal data are important.

What Are the Rights of an Employee Subjected to Mobbing?

The employee may make a written complaint to the employer or to the human resources or ethics unit, and may use the occupational health and safety mechanisms. Where the conditions are met, the routes of ALO 170, CİMER, the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Türkiye and the Ombudsman Institution come into play. The Human Rights and Equality Institution has jurisdiction only where there is a ground of discrimination and a field of competence under Law no. 6701.

Depending on the gravity of the conduct, just-cause termination under Labour Law art. 24/II, prevention or a declaration of the violation of personality rights, pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages, and discrimination compensation may be sought. In a just-cause termination, the starting point of the six-working-day and one-year periods in Labour Law art. 26 must be examined carefully by reference to continuing conduct and the date of knowledge.

As a rule, compulsory mediation applies before proceedings are brought for an employee's or employer's claim and compensation. After the final record there is no general two-week period for bringing a mobbing compensation claim; the two-week period is specific to reinstatement claims.

Depending on the features of the case, psychological harassment may constitute a just cause for termination under Labour Law art. 24/II. The just cause and the intention to terminate must be proved, and the period in art. 26 must also be observed where it applies. Severance pay requires the statutory length of service; an employee terminating for just cause neither receives nor pays in lieu of notice. If a violation of personality rights and loss are proved, pecuniary or non-pecuniary damages may be sought under arts. 49, 56 and 417 of the Code of Obligations. For pecuniary damages, concrete loss and causation are assessed; for non-pecuniary damages, the gravity of the violation of personality rights. Different legal bases for the same event do not give rise to double recovery.

If the conditions for just-cause termination are met, the employee may claim severance pay according to their length of service, payment for untaken annual leave and unpaid employment claims. Pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages are additionally subject to the conditions of unlawfulness, fault, loss and causation; not all heads arise automatically from an allegation of mobbing.

What Criteria Do the Higher Courts Apply in Mobbing Cases?

In assessing psychological harassment, a single remark, an ordinary workplace dispute or the lawful exercise of managerial authority is distinguished from systematic conduct that damages personality rights. The connection of the conduct with the employment relationship, its continuity or repetition, its direction at a particular person, its gravity, its effect on the working environment and the whole course of events are examined together. The statute contains no fixed threshold such as six months or a set number of repetitions per week.

An intention to intimidate or exclude may not be demonstrable by direct documentary evidence; the objective character of the conduct and mutually corroborating indicators are assessed. Conversely, the victim's subjective perception alone is not sufficient either. E-mails and messages, changes of duties, performance records, medical documents and witness statements are considered lawfully and as a whole.

If reliance is to be placed on a decision of a higher court, its date and its file and decision numbers must be verified. The criteria set out in this article are general assessment criteria within the framework of the duty to protect personality in art. 417 of the Code of Obligations and the rules of proof.

A generally harsh management style or poor working conditions may not on their own prove psychological harassment directed at a particular employee. Nevertheless, where the same conduct systematically targets more than one employee, this does not rule out a collective or multiple violation of personality rights; the course of events is examined separately for each employee.

What Is the Employer's Duty to Prevent Mobbing?

The employer's duty to protect the employee's personality and to take the necessary measures against psychological harassment is expressly regulated in art. 417 of the Code of Obligations. The duty of equal treatment in Labour Law art. 5 may also come into play where the psychological harassment rests on a discriminatory ground; art. 5 is not on its own a general mobbing provision. The employer must take the measures that may be expected of it in good faith in order to prevent psychological harassment at the workplace and to investigate concrete allegations reported to it appropriately, impartially and effectively.

What the employer must do within its duty of prevention includes: organising awareness training on mobbing at the workplace, adopting a clear written anti-mobbing policy, establishing complaint mechanisms, investigating complaints in accordance with the principle of confidentiality, and applying the necessary sanctions.

Even where the employer does not itself engage in psychological harassment, if it fails to take the measures expected of it in good faith against conduct it knew of or could have known of with due care, art. 417 of the Code of Obligations and the other liability provisions may come into play. For compensation, the breach, the loss, adequate causation and the applicable basis of liability are assessed separately in the particular case.

The steps the employer must take in response to a mobbing complaint are: assessing the complaint immediately, opening an impartial investigation, temporarily relocating the victim or the perpetrator where necessary, applying disciplinary sanctions according to the outcome of the investigation, and taking measures to protect the victim.

The sanctions the employer may apply against a perpetrator of mobbing include a written warning, a change of place of duty, a reprimand and, as the most severe sanction, termination of the employment contract for just cause under Labour Law art. 25/II.

What Complaint Routes Are Available for Mobbing?

An employee subjected to psychological harassment may, in addition to internal complaint mechanisms, apply to the competent authority through ALO 170 or CİMER. An application to the Human Rights and Equality Institution may be used where the matter is connected with one of the grounds of discrimination listed in Law no. 6701 and falls within the Institution's field of competence.

ALO 170 is a communication centre attached to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. Through this line employees may submit complaints on all matters relating to working life, including mobbing. Following a complaint, Ministry inspectors may carry out an inspection at the workplace. The Human Rights and Equality Institution examines allegations of breach of the prohibition of discrimination within its field of competence and may impose administrative sanctions where the statutory conditions are met. Not every allegation of psychological harassment falls within the Institution's individual application procedure in the absence of a ground of discrimination.

Upon a complaint to the labour inspectorate, labour inspectors carry out an inspection at the workplace and assess the working conditions. The inspector's report constitutes important evidence in any subsequent proceedings.

Mobbing may at the same time constitute an offence under the Turkish Criminal Code. Offences such as insult (art. 125), threat (art. 106) and disturbing a person's peace and quiet (art. 123) may arise in the context of mobbing. In that case the victim may file a criminal complaint with the public prosecutor's office.

What Are the Compensation Rights and Limitation Periods in Mobbing Cases?

For pecuniary damages, loss, unlawfulness, fault and causation are examined; for non-pecuniary damages, the violation of personality rights and the conditions in art. 58 of the Code of Obligations. Discrimination compensation under Labour Law art. 5 applies only where the statutory prohibition of discrimination has been breached. Basing the same event on more than one legal ground does not result in double recovery.

The limitation period varies with the nature of the claim: five years for employment claims, generally ten years for breach of contract, and in tort two years from knowledge and in any event ten years; where the act constitutes an offence, a longer criminal limitation period may come into play. Different claims in the same file may be subject to different periods.

Pecuniary losses such as medical and pharmaceutical expenses and loss of working capacity or earnings may be claimed to the extent that they are documented and an adequate causal link with the psychological harassment is established. Losses arising from other causes, or hypothetical losses, are not added to the compensation; the employee's duty to mitigate is also assessed.

What Practical Steps Should an Employee Take Against Mobbing?

The practical steps an employee subjected to mobbing should take are: recording the events with dates and details, obtaining medical support, gathering written evidence, using the internal complaint mechanisms, and obtaining legal advice. As a first step, the employee should record in writing all the adverse conduct they have been subjected to, together with the date, time, place, the conduct itself and any witness details. These records constitute important evidence in any subsequent proceedings.

The second step is to obtain medical support. Psychological problems experienced during a period of mobbing (depression, anxiety, sleep disorder, panic attacks and the like) should be medically documented. It is important to consult a psychologist or psychiatrist, receive regular treatment and keep the treatment records.

The third step is to gather written evidence. E-mails, messages, written instructions, performance appraisals, workplace camera footage and other documents should be preserved. Taking and keeping screenshots of digital evidence is recommended.

The fourth step is to use the internal complaint mechanisms. A written complaint should be made to the human resources department, senior management or, where one exists, the ethics committee. It is important that the complaint be made in writing and that a receipt be obtained.

Finally, obtaining professional support from an employment lawyer is recommended. The lawyer will assess the particular circumstances, determine the most appropriate legal strategy, plan the timing of any just-cause termination and calculate the compensation entitlements.

This content is for general information and does not constitute legal advice. For specific legal problems you are strongly advised to obtain professional support from a lawyer.

Official sources: Turkish Code of Obligations no. 6098, Labour Law no. 4857, Code of Civil Procedure no. 6100, Law no. 6701 on the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Türkiye, Presidential Circular no. 2025/3