247: this is the number of investigations into sexual and moral harassment carried out in 2023 by members of the Federation of Workers at Psychosocial Risks (Firps) at the request of company management or the social and economic committees (CSE), revealed the federation on September 17, which today published its guide to good practices for managing harassment situations (“Dealing with harassment situations. Comments, methodological references and recommendations”).
Everything contributes to the inflation of the phenomenon: the media coverage of companies that creates a #metoo effect, the prevention campaigns that bring new cases to light, the creation in large companies of listening units that contribute to freedom of expression, not to mention the law of 17 January 2002 that introduced moral harassment into the labour code.
More recently, the legislator has supported this inflation, analyses François Cochet, president of the Firps. First, by limiting the compensation of the labour courts (the “Macron scale” of 2017), because “encourages certain whistleblowers to invoke harassment” to the extent that “Its recognition by the court allows us to escape the scales”.
Alert network
The Labour Code reform orders then merged and centralised the staff representative bodies under the pretext of simplifying social dialogue.
But in doing so, “Some companies were deprived of an alert network near the site”. Made up of on-site staff representatives, this network referred problems to HR departments, who could intervene before things got worse. HR managers are now having to do without it, as are local HR managers, whose numbers have also been reduced at some employers.
According to the FIRP, the consequences of this double strain are: organisations no longer have the means to deal with the difficulties expressed by employees or managers as soon as they arise. “However, the lack of quick solutions aggravates sometimes minor difficulties and the resulting demands end up being expressed in the vocabulary of harassment.”, continued François Cochet.
In this context, Firps aims to use its guide to help stakeholders (employers and staff representatives) deal with increasingly numerous and complex harassment situations.
Qualification interviews
Employers should be careful not to initiate specific investigations prematurely. “In fact, harassment can refer to other problems related to management, work organization, interpersonal conflicts…”“Recalls Isabelle Tarty, vice-president of Firps. Three-quarters of the requests for investigations made to them do not meet the criteria that constitute harassment at the legal level (repetition, harm to health, violation of dignity, etc.).
You have 32.24% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
