Conditions for compensation for moral damage caused to the employee

Abstract

As cases of violation of employees’ rights are becoming more and more frequent today, the issue of bringing the employer or its authorised body to justice is becoming increasingly relevant. One of the most effective ways to counteract this phenomenon is to compensate for moral damages. That is why the purpose of the article is to determine the conditions and grounds for bringing an employer to liability in the form of compensation for damage to an employee, since this issue is the most pressing one. The following scientific methods were used in the course of the study: monographic, formal and logical, legal and dogmatic, systemic and structural, and the method of summarization.

It is established that compensation for non-pecuniary damage to an employee is possible subject to certain statutory conditions which are common to liability in all cases of non-pecuniary damage. Each of these conditions is examined in detail, namely: the fact of causing (presence of) non-pecuniary damage; unlawfulness of the employer’s actions; existence of a causal link between the employer’s unlawful act and the non-pecuniary damage caused to the employee; and the employer's guilt. The author proves that non-pecuniary damage occurs if the following grounds exist: the person and the perpetrator of the damage are in an employment relationship; it arose as a result of a violation of labour rights by the employer; the employee suffers moral losses in the form of emotional distress, and these negative changes have led to the loss of normal life ties and require additional efforts from the employee to organise his or her life.

It is proved that the most appropriate theory for resolving the issue of the presence or absence of causation in the legal relations under consideration is the theory of direct and indirect causation.

It is argued that since moral suffering always “accompanies” a violation of an employee’s legal labour rights, the presumption of moral damages should be enshrined in law. Based on the study of relevant sources and regulations, the author provides her own definition of the concept of “employer’s guilt”.