Workplace bullying is as detrimental to health and safety as any physical hazard, the Minister of State for Labour, Trade and Consumer Affairs said yesterday.
Mr Tom Kitt told the first meeting of the Task Force on Workplace Bullying that the issue could not be ignored or dismissed as of lesser importance than other safety issues.
He said employers would have to acknowledge that bullying was "damaging to the smooth and effective running of a business" and called on them to draw up anti-bullying strategies.
"Where there is a strong commitment from the top down, it will be far easier for line managers and individual workers to take a stand against a culture which says it is acceptable to humiliate, harm and damage another human being," Mr Kitt said at the headquarters of the Health and Safety Authority in Dublin.
According to the authority's guidelines, bullying can range from verbal abuse or offensive language to "actual physical contact", "unfunny cartoons" and exclusion from social activities.
"Often the most insidious form of bullying can arise from the abuse of authority by bosses giving impossible deadlines or tasks and the repeated unreasonable assignment to duties which are obviously unfavourable to one individual," the guidelines state.
The task force which met yesterday is chaired by a consultant and academic, Dr Eileen Doyle. Mr Kitt said it would identify the scale of the problem in the workplace and the employment sectors most at risk.
It would also develop programmes and strategies to prevent bullying, and produce a co-ordinated response from State agencies.
The task force includes representatives of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Employment Appeals Tribunal and the Employment Equality Agency.
The Labour Court and the Labour Relations Commission are represented, as are the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation.
Mr Kitt indicated that he expected the task force to report to him by next March. He said a report on the size and prevalence of the problem from Prof Mona O'Moore, of Trinity College Dublin, was "imminent".
