Stress at work, according to the Supreme Court the employer must answer for damages

If the work environment is too stressful, the responsibility lies with employer, who must act to avoid damage to the employee's health and it cannot be limited to combating and preventing mobbing. This was established by a ruling of the Supreme Court, which expressed its opinion on case of an employee of Erap delle Marchewho had requested compensation for mental suffering.

At first instance, his request was accepted, but the administration appealed and in 2018 the Court of Appeal of Ancona upheld the appeal, rejecting the employee's request. The judges of the Court of Appeal did not find “that common persecutory intent which represents a constitutive element of mobbing”: according to them we could speak, at most, of “managerial and organizational deficiencies”.

But the Supreme Court overturned the sentencereferring to article 2087 of the Civil Code, which establishes that «the entrepreneur is required to adopt in carrying out the business the measures which, according to the particularity of the work, experience and technique, are necessary to protect the 'physical integrity and moral personality of workers'. The violation is, therefore, contractual in natureand the employee has the right to assert contractual liability against his or her employer.

According to the Court, therefore, the protection of the worker's psycho-physical integrity must be the priority, and must count more than economic and productive feasibility, which do not justify a lack of attention to protection and prevention measures. The judges of the Supreme Court have established that the employer is responsible even without the presence of “unifying oppressive behaviour”, such as mobbing: behaviors, even negligent ones, that can harm the moral personality of the worker and stressful working conditions are enough. And “the remedy available to the employee is that of contractual liability”.