Bullying In The Workplace
What Is Bullying?
The Taskforce On The Prevention Of Workplace Bullying defined workplace bullying as –
Workplace bullying is repeated inappropriate behaviour, direct or indirect, whether verbal, physical or otherwise, conducted by one or more persons, against another or others, at the place of work and/or in the course of employment, which could reasonably be regarded as undermining the individual’s right to dignity at work. An isolated incident of the behaviour described in this definition may be an affront to dignity at work but as a once off incident is not considered to be bullying.
This has become an accepted definition and is used in the three Codes Of Practices recommended by the Task Force and outlined later in this chapter. It is a definition employer and trade unions need not disagree over as representatives of both were involved in drawing up this definition.
Is Bullying A Learned Behaviour?
Bullying can be a behaviour that is learned – particularly in a workplace where bullying is seen to go unpunished and, worse, possibly to attract reward. There is a culture within some enterprises that presents bullying behaviour as the way to manage or supervise, to outwit colleagues or to gain promotional advantage, or it may simply be part of the so-called humour of the workplace to ‘slag’ others or poke fun at workmates.
But, with appropriate support and strategies, workplace bullying can be unlearned and replaced with more respectful and appropriate means of achieving desirable outcomes.
What Is Bullying Behaviour?
Some examples of bullying behaviour to be aware of are –
undermining a person or persons;
targeting a person or persons in a negative manner;
manipulating an individual’s reputation by rumour, gossip, ridicule or innuendo;
excluding or isolating someone socially;
intimidating a person or persons;
physically abusing or threatening abuse;
using aggressive or obscene language;
making jokes that are obviously offensive to one individual by spoken word, word, picture or e-mail;
intruding on a person’s privacy by pestering, spying or stalking;
giving unreasonable assignments to duties which are obviously unfavourable to one individual;
giving repeated requests with impossible deadlines or impossible tasks;
harassing someone sexually – there is a definition of sexual harassment in the Employment Equality Act, 1998;
harassment on any of the nine discriminatory grounds cited in the Employment Equality Act, 1998.
Are There Different Types Of Bullying?
There can be. In The United Kingdom, the National Bullying Advice Line identifies five different
types of bullying -
pressure bullying when negative interaction is due to the stress of the moment but this does not constitute workplace bullying;
corporate bullying when the employer feels free to bully because measures of accountability are ineffective or absent;
serial bullying when the bully targets one person after another;
pair bullying when the serial bully conspires with a colleague and one person usually becomes more dominant than the other;
gang bullying when a serial bully encourages others to join in the bullying over a period of time.
What Are The Legal Remedies Against Bullying?
There is no specific ‘Protection Of Employees Against A Bullying Act’ or something like it. The Task Force On Workplace Bullying opted for non-statutory remedies and three Codes Of Practice have been produced. These are outlined further on in this Chapter. That said, existing legislation does provide some avenues of redress for victims of bullying. The various possibilities are listed here in terms of the chronology of the legislation.
Protective Legislation
Industrial Relations Acts, 1946-2001 allows that individual grievances that are not resolved at workplace level can be referred to the Rights Commissioner, Labour Relations Commission (LRC) or Labour Court. There is some evidence that such bodies are happier dealing with the absence of effective procedures in bullying cases rather than the substantive issue of bullying itself. Another problem is that most outcomes – Recommendations from the Rights Commissioner or Labour Court – are non-binding on the employer and not enforceable in law. For those in non-unionised employments, this is a major drawback. For trade union organised employments this traditional industrial relations avenue may well be very effective in gaining the introduction or improvement of effective workplace procedures to deal with bullying. The Labour Relations Commission (LRC) Code Of Practice Detailing Procedures For Addressing Bullying In The Workplace may well have import in influencing how industrial relations tribunals consider cases where there is either an absence of such procedures or they have been ignored. This Code Of Practice is discussed in more detail below. go to the link below and you will find more on bullying