Court blames workplace bullying for woman’s suicide

A Thessaloniki court has attributed the suicide of a 41-year-old mentally disabled employee of a municipally-run enterprise in Oraiokastro to workplace bullying, in a landmark and rare decision.

In a scathing denouncement that was reported by the Voria news website on Friday, a judge at the Thessaloniki Court of First Instance opined that relentless bullying and the toxic environment the woman was subjected to in the workplace led the 41-year-old woman to take her own life with a combination of pills and alcohol.

Describing the conditions under which the deceased worked as "exceptionally difficult and unusual," the judge ruled that "prolonged and severe conflict" and "prolonged job insecurity" caused a "psychological and nervous breakdown." 

"As a result, lacking the ability to decide rationally, tendencies toward self-destruction emerged, leading to substance...