The number of Irish employees complaining of being bullied in the workplace is on the increase, an ESRI survey to be published next month will reveal.
The survey, commissioned by the Government Taskforce on the Prevention of Workplace Bullying, will show that 8 per cent of workers say they have problems at work, compared with 7 per cent of employees who said they were victims of bullying in the last such survey carried out in 2001.
The results come as The Irish Times has learned that moves are under way to bring public service workers under the full remit of the Government's workplace anti-bullying code of practice for the first time due to concern at the high number of bullying complaints from the public sector, notably in hospitals and schools.
Minister of State for Labour Affairs Tony Killeen has written to Minister for Finance Brian Cowen, urging him to extend the scope of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) code of practice for employers and employees on the prevention and resolution of bullying at work to cover all public sector workers.
Currently, the code of practice that applies to the workforce generally - which is being updated by the HSA following a request from Mr Killeen - does not give public service staff the right to have their cases referred ultimately to the Labour Court.
In the private sector if internal procedures do not resolve a bullying complaint, a worker can ask a rights commissioner to investigate. The findings of the commissioner can then be appealed to the Labour Court.
Mr Killeen told The Irish Times that the fact that historically the public service is not covered by the Labour Court was a "huge shortcoming".
"I am anxious that the public service also have recourse to the Labour Court, particularly as a large number of bullying allegations come from hospitals and schools."
Last week the HSA published its draft updated code of practice on the prevention and resolution of workplace bullying, and it is inviting submissions from interested parties up to January 16th.
The publication of the new code follows a report by the Expert Advisory Group on Workplace Bullying which recommended the introduction of legislation requiring employers to have bullying prevention policies in the workplace.
Mr Killeen said the proposed new code put emphasis on the resolving of incidents of bullying using an informal process and professional mediation services.