Comparative Study of Regulating the Moral Harassment: Lessons for China

Moral harassment is one of the most rapidly emerging workplace violence complaints. Although there is no internationally accepted definition of moral harassment, it may be understood generally as repeated, non-physical acts of harassment at the workplace, occurring over a significant time period, that have a humiliating effect on the victim [1]. Moral harassment is due to unacceptable behaviour by one or more individuals and can take many different forms. It refers to intimidating, humiliating or embarrassing, harmful or unwanted conduct occurring in the context of an employment relationship that objectively violates the fundamental rights of the worker, namely his dignity, physical and moral integrity [2]. A similar concept which is often confusing with moral harassment is work stress. Indeed, it is difficult sometimes for the workers to distinguish moral harassment from the stress resulting from the work organization [3]. What makes the issue more complex is work stress could be in many cases regarded as a psychological outcome of moral harassment, resulting in occupational health problems [4]. Moral harassment is distinguished from work stress due to the fact that moral harassment is caused by a third party at workplace while work stress is caused in most cases by working load. Moral harassment is a problem troubling the workers’ occupational health. In December 2000, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions reported that around eight percent of EU workers, or twelve million people, had been victimized by moral harassment during a twelve-month period [5].