The main responsibility of the parties to an employment relationship is that the employee performs his/her duties properly and the employer pays the employee his/her wages and other social rights in return. However, in order for this relationship to be established and to continue in accordance with the law, it is not enough to fulfill only the rights and obligations mentioned above.
The employee’s duty of loyalty and the employer’s duty of equal treatment and consideration of the employee are at least as important and valuable as the above-mentioned issues.
The main thing in the employment relationship is the relationship of trust, and both parties should respect the rights and obligations of the other party while performing their obligations. The employer should not have the mentality that the other party is my employee anyway, I can do whatever I want, and the employee should not have the mentality that I work here anyway, I can behave as I want. In other words, both the employee and the employer are obliged to respect each other’s material and moral rights.
Particularly in recent times, we have come across more and more examples such as forcing the employee to resign and psychological pressure to be removed from work. Approaches in this sense may lead to damage not only to the continuation of the employment relationship, but also to the moral rights of the employee. A worker who is under psychological pressure cannot be expected to work efficiently and effectively, and the principle of trust, which is one of the basic elements of the employment relationship mentioned above, will also be damaged. In such an environment, expecting the employee to continue the employment relationship may lead to unbearable and irreparable loss of rights.
As a matter of fact, in the decision of Ankara 8th Labor Court dated 20.12.2006 and numbered 2006/19-625[1], “… as it can be understood from the witness statements, he was subjected to verbal attacks and insults such as his supervisors shouting loudly from a distance, telling him to do work, giving orders and tasks while talking on the phone without paying attention to his conversation, shouting loudly and saying “you are not capable of this job”. His personal rights were violated and he was humiliated among his colleagues. These behaviors were evaluated by our court as behaviors aimed at intimidating the worker, applying psychological pressure and generally making him quit his job. This opinion is also strengthened by the fact that the plaintiff had a crying crisis after working hours, received psychological treatment and received a report, which was also confirmed by witness statements. The concept of mobbing includes all kinds of ill-treatment, threats, violence, humiliation, etc. behaviors that are systematically applied to individuals in the workplace by superiors, equal level employees or subordinates.” After giving place to these statements, the court ruled that the employee can claim moral compensation for this unfair treatment.
As a general principle of law, the limit of a person’s rights is up to the point where the rights of others begin. This principle also applies to labor relations. The judicial decision mentioned above is a very good example of this principle. We are of the opinion that this judicial decision will set a precedent and constitute a principle for the compensation of all material and moral damages of the workers who have to work under psychological pressure in this way.
