Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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St Andrew's First Aid Australia | Created by Business Link on 29 December 2010 12:32 © Crown copyright 2010 Page 1
Bullying and harassment
The impact of bullying and harassment The equality legislation makes it unlawful in
employment or vocational training to harass
Recognising bullying or harassment
someone on the grounds of:
Preventing bullying and harassment
• sex
Drawing up an anti-bullying and harassment • gender reassignment
policy • race
• disability
Dealing with bullying and harassment claims • religion/belief
• sexual orientation
Here's how I developed an anti bullying and • age
harassment policy
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Bullying and harassment
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Bullying and harassment
However, you may only be liable for such because of underlying problems in the
harassment if you know that the employee workplace such as:
has been harassed in the course of their
employment on at least two other occasions • poor job design and work
by a third party. relationships
• lack of accountability
Note that it does not matter whether the • the existence of a particular culture
third party is the same or a different person at work
on each occasion. • an over-competitive environment
• fear of redundancy
Examples of harassment include: • a rigid style of management
• lack of procedure for resolving
problems
• embarrassing or otherwise offensive
jokes
• unwelcome physical contact or If bullying and/or harassment is a problem in
sexual advances your workplace, try to find out why it's
• the expression of racist, homophobic, happening before taking action.
etc views
• lewd comments and innuendo For example, if a number of employees
• the sending of offensive emails, text have started to complain of being on the
messages, etc receiving end of sexist jokes, it may be that
• displays of pornographic material there is a culture of sexist banter in your
workplace. If so, you could:
It is possible that some incidents of
harassment may not be covered by the • take informal disciplinary action
anti-discrimination legislation. However, if an against those telling the jokes, eg
employer fails to deal with any form of verbal or written warnings
harassment, the victim could resign and • remind all your staff about your
claim constructive dismissal. See the page bullying/harassment policy, eg that
in this guide on the impact of bullying and bullying and harassing colleagues is
harassment. a serious disciplinary matter
It is good practice for employers to have a See the page in this guide on dealing with
bullying and harassment policy giving bullying and harassment claims.
written examples of what is unacceptable
behaviour in their organisation. See the
page in this guide on drawing up an The impact of bullying and
anti-bullying and harassment policy.
harassment
Employers should be aware of the potential
Why does bullying and legal implications of bullying and
harassment occur? harassment in the workplace.
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Bullying and harassment
relations
Harassment of an employee can amount to: • loss of respect for managers
• reduced productivity and profits
• unlawful discrimination on the • increased absenteeism and turnover
grounds of race, sex, gender of staff
reassignment, disability, • damage to the image of the business
religion/belief, sexual orientation or • employment tribunal or other civil
age court claims- see our guide on
• a breach of contract, ie a breach of employment tribunal claims - the
one of the implied terms of any basics
employment contract, such as the
duty to provide a safe working
environment or to maintain trust and Recognising bullying or
confidence in the employer
• a criminal offence
harassment
Bullying and harassment can often be hard
You could be liable for the actions of your for employers to recognise, particularly as it
employees unless you have taken may not be obvious to colleagues of the
reasonable steps to prevent bullying or person being bullied or harassed.
harassment. Action could still also be taken
against you even after a person has left your This may be because:
employment.
• the harassment or bullying is done in
You could also be held liable for harassment subtle ways
if you fail to prevent a third party, eg a • staff may think it's part of the 'culture'
customer, harassing an employee. of the workplace
However, you may be liable for such An individual may also be too frightened to
harassment only if you know that the report an incident.
employee has been harassed in the course
of their employment on at least two other
occasions by a third party. A good employer should be aware of this,
and keep an eye out for some of the
possible signs of bullying and harassment,
Note that it does not matter whether the see our guide on supporting front-line
third party is the same or a different person managers.
on each occasion.
Signs may include:
Bullying and harassment can also have a
serious adverse effect on the success of the
business leading to reduced productivity and • absenteeism - if this is more
profits. This is because bullying and frequent, or for longer periods than
harassment can cause: usual
• high staff turnover - especially if it
occurs in a particular section or
• low morale and poor employee where staff work for a particular
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Bullying and harassment
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Bullying and harassment
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Bullying and harassment
When you are dealing with a case of develop a Grade II listed Victorian palm
bullying and harassment, decide carefully house in Sefton Park near Liverpool. The
what action you are going to take - whether Trust raises income through commercial
against the complainant or bully/harasser. hires of the building, to ensure a sustainable
This could be: future and support the development of an
events programme for visitors. Director
• counselling or training Elizabeth-Anne Williams describes how a
• an informal or formal warning review led to the introduction of a new policy
• suspension to prevent workplace bullying.
• transfer - only the guilty party should
be transferred What I did
• dismissal
Recognise the need for a formal policy
Trade unions may have a role in cases of
bullying and harassment. They can provide: "We recently reviewed all our policies, to
make sure we were legally up to speed and
to reflect the growth of the business. We
• support for claims also wanted to build on our culture of
• guidance and support for the openness and good communication.
complainant or the alleged bully or
harasser
• accompaniment to hearings "One area that hadn't been properly
• help in eliminating a bullying culture addressed was bullying and harassment.
The management team decided to develop
a formal bullying and harassment policy, not
because we had a problem in that area, but
Here's how I developed an anti because we wanted staff to know where
bullying and harassment policy they stood."
Elizabeth-Anne Williams
Write a policy
Sefton Park Palm House Preservation "We gathered information from sources like
Trust - Opens in a new window the Acas website and also used a model
policy supplied by Tourism HR to get us
Elizabeth-Anne's top tips: started. The document sets the scope of the
policy upfront and explains why it's
• "Involve staff as much as possible." important. For example it aims to give
• "Be clear about why you're employees a clear sense of what behaviours
introducing a policy and underline are acceptable and what are not, to support
management commitment to it." and protect them in the workplace and to
• "Communicate the messages in a encourage teamwork.
variety of ways."
"The policy also includes sections on the
principles behind the policy, legal
The Sefton Park Palm House Preservation responsibilities and the procedures to be
Trust was formed in 1996 to restore and followed in the event of an allegation. For
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Bullying and harassment
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