Workplace bullying or harassment is extremely serious and needs to be treated so by employers, who have a duty of care to provide a safe and stress-free workplace. No one wants their staff to be treated badly at work.
So how do you stop this happening?
Let’s start with the basics …
What is workplace bullying and harassment?
Having a clear understanding of what exactly bullying and harassment are will make it easier for you to take pragmatic steps to prevent it and when dealing with incidents of it. Workplace bullying and harassment can happen face-to-face, online, by letter or over the phone.
Bullying: is not actually illegal, but it is unacceptable in the workplace. There is no precise legal definition, but it includes unwanted, offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour and can be verbal or non-verbal.
Examples of bullying behaviour:
- ‘Picking on’ a colleague, such as excessive teasing or taunting
- Shouting at a colleague or reprimanding them publicly
- Excluding a colleague
- Setting someone up to fail
- Whispering campaigns – gossiping about a colleague behind their back
- Giving excessive (unjustified) criticism, or delivering it aggressively
- Undermining a colleague’s ability to do their work or only giving them menial tasks
- Taking credit for a colleague’s work or stealing/copying their work
- Deliberately blocking someone’s promotion or other opportunities to advance their career
It may be an abuse of power which undermines or humiliates. It could cause physical or emotional harm. It can be both a regular pattern or a one-time incident.
Even if someone isn’t aware that their behaviour is bullying, if it meets the criteria, it is.
You may expect bullying to take place between colleagues, or from a manager towards their team members, but upward bullying can also happen. This is when staff bully someone more senior, also called subordinate bullying.
Although there is no such thing as a specific claim of ‘bullying’, a legal challenge can still be brought, such as Constructive Unfair Dismissal – an employee could claim that their treatment, along with the employer’s failure to prevent it, constitutes a ‘fundamental breach’ of their contract, whereby they can resign and claim unfair dismissal in an employment tribunal.
Even if there is no express breach of contract, the employee could claim that there has been a breach of an implied term, such as:
- The duty of mutual trust and confidence
- The duty to provide reasonable support to employees
- The duty to provide a safe place of work
Harassment: is, in some circumstances, a hate crime. Harassment is unlawful under the Equality Act 2010 when it relates to a protected characteristic. These are:
- Age
- Disability
- Race
- Sex
- Religion or belief
- Gender reassignment
- Sexual orientation
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Marriage and civil partnership
The Equality Act defines harassment as ‘unwanted (unwelcome or uninvited) conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic, which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual’.
Employers are liable for harassment suffered by an employee in the workplace.
Sexual Harassment and the Workers Protection Act
From October 26th 2024, employers will have a new duty to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment for employees. This is an additional amendment to the Equality Act 2010 following the passing of the Workers Protection Act 2023.
If a tribunal finds that an employer did not take steps to protect workers, it will have the power to increase compensation for sexual harassment by up to 25%. There is a very good CIPD article about getting ready for this new duty to prevent sexual harassment. Having a policy in place will no longer be a sufficient measure to determine that an employer has done everything they can to protect their employees. We will be writing more about this new act soon, so keep an eye out.
How to prevent bullying and harassment
Effectively preventing bullying and harassment in your workplace starts with a clear understanding across the workforce. The basis for this will be your bullying and harassment policy/policies.
Well-communicated zero tolerance policies, backed up by strong values demonstrated by the senior team, are essential. Alongside these, it’s key to highlight the accountability of the business and the management team, and make it clear that every employee is responsible for their behaviour.
The policy may include:
- Definitions of bullying and harassment
- Guidance for employees on how to report, both informally or formally
- The procedure for formal complaints
- Guidance on available training
- Guidance for everyone in the company on how to spot signs of bullying and harassment
- How employees who have been victims of bullying or harassment will be supported
- Consequences of bullying and harassing
- Examples of bullying and harassment (and the differences between them)
- The promise that reports are dealt with seriously and confidentially
Businesses need to provide regular training for managers on how to handle complaints and learning to recognise signs of bullying and harassment. Companies thrive when they have a culture of respect across all aspects of the business. Good training for all employees on understanding and preventing bullying and harassment is important to developing this positive atmosphere. Everyone needs to know what the standards and expectations of the company are, and that bullying and harassment will not be tolerated.
You should also regularly review your disciplinary and grievance procedures to ensure that they remain appropriate and effective
Dealing with reports of workplace bullying and harassment
Good training will help your senior team to identify how best to deal with different levels of complaints. An employee may make an informal or formal complaint. Resolving the issue informally means taking steps without using the formal grievance procedure. Resolving informally is usually less stressful and quicker, but how a report is dealt with will depend on your policy and how serious the situation is.
If you don’t take reports of bullying and harassment seriously, the employee has the right to escalate the report by taking legal action at an employment tribunal. At the tribunal the court will consider how you dealt with the complaint.
Always deal with a report formally if you are in any doubt that an informal approach will be appropriate.
Consequences of bullying and harassment in a workplace
Employees who are victims of bullying or harassment at work can suffer ongoing damage to their health. This can be mental and physical. Heightened stress can cause anxiety, loss of confidence, lack of motivation or fear to come to work and this can manifest itself in physical reactions such as feeling unwell, lack of appetite, headaches and many other symptoms.
If there is a negative environment in the workplace created by bullying or harassment, the results may be more far-reaching than just the person directly affected. A disjointed team will not be motivated or productive.
Additionally, cases of bullying and harassment can have legal consequences and could seriously damage a company’s reputation.
Dealing with bullying and harassment effectively comes from good policies and good training. This starts with you and your senior team and should filter down to each and every staff member.
For support writing policies, training your team or dealing with reports of bully or harassment, contact us on 01252 757359 or drop us an email at [email protected]. We know that dealing with these situations is hard, so we are here to make things easier.