Considerations about personality rights and moral harassment in work relations

Abstract

Moral harassment in the work environment, for many authors, is as old as work itself. In the past few years the theme has been attracting some attention from doctrinarians and researchers because it is a kind of moral violence, not typified as crime, which creates the possibility, when the repetitive conduct is demonstrated, of civil compensation. The aim is to worn employers and to make workers more aware about the damaging effects caused by the practice of moral harassment in organizations. Harassed workers have to bear in silence very embarrassing and humiliating situations; actions that have the objective to emotionally destabilize their victims and force them to resign their jobs. On the other hand, we have the so-called “Personality Rights”, subjective rights, which are applied to everyone, the worker included, during and after the employment relationship. Thus, everyone that is affected, be it in his/her physical or moral integrity or in situations that put him/her in an inequality position in respect to others, deserves the protection of the State. The Brazilian jurisprudence has manifested their intention to protect the worker and reveals the importance of punishing the practice of moral harassment when the existence of the harassed worker’s moral damage is duly characterized.