Every employer should have an anti-bullying policy. If they don't, they can be vulnerable to a successful claim against them "even where the employer had no knowledge of the harassment until a claim has been made under legislation" according to a recent IBEC report.
A recent study by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions found that as many as 9 per cent of employees had been subjected to workplace intimidation.
The EU survey showed that three million workers were subjected to sexual harassment, six million workers suffer physical violence and 12 million workers were subjected to intimidation and psychological violence in the workplace.
There is as yet no legal obligation in Ireland to have an anti-bullying policy but employers have a duty of care to ensure the health and safety of employees under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 1989. Employers who do not have an anti-bullying policy could be shown to have failed in their duty of care to do everything possible to prevent harassment of employees.
IBEC exhorts employers to have a policy to prevent and deal with harassment at work. All employees should know about it and management should be trained to handle complaints of harassment.
IBEC advises employers to take all complaints seriously and investigate each one "thoroughly, impartially and expeditiously". If the working relationship has broken down between two employees, employers should be "very careful that the complainant is not prejudiced by any transfer".
There is "no problem with making transfer of the harasser part of the penalty, even if it interferes with the harasser's career path" so long as the penalty imposed is proportionate to the offence.
As well as the legal implications, IBEC warns of the damage done by workplace bullying: "The result is not just poor morale but higher turnover, reduced productivity, higher absenteeism, lower efficiency and divided teams" and bullying will "eventually show through in the performance of the organisation".
IBEC also warns cases can be taken by employees and former employees under common law. If they prove negligence the employer will have to pay compensation.
Existing policies on how to prevent and tackle sexual harassment are inadequate to deal with wider issues of workplace harassment. These need to be developed to include all types of harassment.
New grievance procedures are required because existing procedures are "unlikely to be adequate for dealing with harassment". Current policies usually require the employee to complain in the first instance to the line manager, but he or she could be the bully. Or the line manager can lack the training and skills required to handle a complaint of harassment.
Ms Carmel Foley, chief executive of the Employment Equality Agency (EEA), says that when the new equality legislation is introduced later this year the envisaged Equality Authority will have wider powers than the EEA.
It will be able to take cases against employers who fail to prevent or deal with workplace harassment due to sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race or membership of the travelling community. Harassment of any worker under these categories will be viewed as discriminatory and illegal under the proposed legislation.
These new powers are in addition to the powers the EEA already has to take cases against employers for workplace discrimination or harassment on the grounds of sex or marital status.
Workplace harassment includes: demeaning comments; attempts to undermine a person's confidence in their work; picking on an individual as the butt of remarks; aggressive behaviour; alienating or isolating an individual; name-calling; persistent criticism; the maligning or ridiculing of a person directly or to others; unfair delegation of duties and responsibilities; assaults, pushing or jostling a worker; interference with an employee's property or threats of violence.
ICTU aims to have an environment in each workplace which ensures that "no worker will have to suffer in silence". Congress says a model agreement should: define bullying; declare a company policy of non-toleration of harassment; show clearly the procedures to protect victims; set up a confidential system for complaints; facilitate expert intervention and counselling; stipulate a grievance procedure with those responsible to be disciplined; and "specifically state that bullying by supervisors or managers will not be tolerated".
Dr Mona O'Moore, founder and co-ordinator of the Anti-Bullying Centre at Trinity College Dublin, says that what is at stake is the dignity of people in the workplace: "It is people that make up a workforce. We don't have robots. If you don't treat people well, they won't perform."
