Work place bullying is like an elephant. Everyone has their own definition of it. But we all know what it is when we see it. Unison, a trade union, claims as many as a third of us are experiencing bullying at work, so those in the Prime Minister’s office alleged last week to be victims are certainly not alone.
There is nothing that specifically outlaws bullying. Victims must cast around to find laws against other things and try and suit these to their case. Employment law gives bullies and their victims rather piecemeal guidance on how to avoid trouble or gain redress.
A territorial army volunteer this month won modest damages for bullying and harassment from the MoD. She went to court and bought a civil case under the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act. The Act is usually used in criminal cases against stalkers. She claimed she suffered persistent, offensive, abusive, intimidating, bullying, humiliating and insulting behaviour.
It is probably most common to see bullying dealt with by tribunals as discrimination cases. The tribunals are then treated to the spectacle of employers attempting to wriggle off the hook by explaining they are nasty to everyone, meaning their behaviour was not discriminatory. Things become very subjective and the outcome depends on just how ghastly the behaviour was and how shocking the Tribunal found it. In one case last year a sports reporter won £800,000 from his newspaper – using disability discrimination law.
Not all staff are protected from bullying by discrimination laws. Others have to resign and claim a constructive unfair dismissal. They have to establish that the bullying was bad enough to count as a total breach of trust and confidence. This is again highly subjective and a headache for both the claimant and the respondent.
Failing that employees also have the option of arguing that the bullying they suffer is a breach of health and safety rules. Section 100 of the Employment Rights Act gives staff protection from unfair dismissal and section 44 from detriment over a health and safety issue. This is meant to protect them from the sack or demotion if they complain, for instance, that the fire escape is locked. But these sections can and have been used as protection for staff who complain about bullying. A breach under section 100 is automatically unfair and employees do not even have to have worked for the usual one year to qualify for this type of unfair dismissal.
Normally the employee will have to establish the bullying created danger of physical violence. There is nothing, however, to suggest that this law could not be used to protect against the danger of psychological damage like stress or depression.
It is a mistake to imagine that the legal quagmire means there is no need to bother about work place bullying. All organisations should have clearly publicised anti bullying codes and grievance procedures to deal carefully with issues that arise.
Bad leaders bully, good leaders prevent bullying at all levels. It is not about law. It is about moral compass.
Peta Fluendy is employment law consultant at Sutton based De Brett and Co
http://www.debrettlaw.co.uk/
employmentlawconsultant@gmx.com
This post has been commented once
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March 3rd, 2010 at 9:57 amMR LOGIC says:
in 1953 the queen was bullied onto the throne
she now has spin doctors
what’s going on