Anti- Bullying Week: Bullying in the Workplace

This week is Anti-Bullying Week and while the focus is on children it’s a timely reminder that bullying isn’t just something that happens in childhood.

Employees often feel that they have been bullied by other staff, particularly line managers. Sometimes these feelings are aired in grievances and can lead to employees resigning and bringing claims such as constructive (unfair) dismissal based on a breach of the implied term of trust and confidence. Even if an employee doesn’t bring a claim, the issues they are facing can, for example, lead to bad working relationships and sickness absence due to stress, none of which are good for the employees or your organisation, and if not dealt with early, bullying complaints can become difficult and very time consuming to resolve using a huge amount of time and resource.

What is bullying?

There is no definition of bullying in legislation. ACAS does, however, provide a useful definition: “Offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour, an abuse or misuse of power through means that undermine, humiliate, denigrate or injure the recipient.” This would be a good definition to adopt in your workplace. You should also consider providing examples of behaviour that may amount to bullying.

How should you deal with bullying?

First of all, you should have in place (and keep under regular review) an anti- bullying policy (often in the form of any anti-bullying and harassment policy) that sets out your organisation’s commitment to preventing bullying and to dealing with any complaints of bullying. We would recommend that you adopt the ACAS definition of bullying and provide examples of behaviour that may amount to bullying. You should also explain how bullying will be dealt with, including that it may be treated as a disciplinary offence.

But it’s not good enough to just have the policy. You need to circulate it all employees and for them to have read and understood it. This should take place at induction and at regular intervals during employment. Training would also facilitate a better understanding of the policy and the expectations you have for your staff’s behaviour.

What should you do if an employee alleges they are being bullied?

Those with responsibility for HR should be on hand to provide confidential assistance to employees who feel they have been bullied.

Where an employee feels able to, they should raise their concerns directly informally with the person responsible. If an employee doesn’t feel able to do this (which may often by the case) or an informal approach hasn’t stopped the behaviour then they should raise a formal grievance. Grievances should be dealt with seriously, promptly, confidentially and objectively by somebody who hasn’t had any prior involvement in the complaint. Where the outcome of the grievance is that bullying has occurred you should deal with the matter under your disciplinary procedure.

What claims might an employee have?

As well as claims for constructive (unfair) dismissal, where bullying is linked to a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 (e.g. race, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief) then the behaviour might also lead to claims of unlawful discrimination against not only the employer but also against the bully. Claims may also be brought for personal injury. Serious cases of bullying (particularly where there has been a failure to properly deal with them) could lead to intervention by the Health and Safety Executive.

If you would like any further advice on how to deal with bullying or are interested in training that we can deliver on workplace behaviour then please don’t hesitate to contact a member of the Brabners employment team.