Colin Foote, Director - Employment & Equality Law
Our working lives are important to us as typically, we spend a great deal of time at work. This means that as an employer it is your duty to ensure that all of your employees are properly protected whilst they are at work.
This does not just mean that you have carried out a risk assessment and comply with all the health and safety responsibilities in the work place. Bullying and harassment can cause significant problems for you and for your staff and therefore being aware of the impact of bullying or harassment and understanding how to tackle it, can mean the difference between resolving a problem for your employee or ending up in an Employment Tribunal because of it.
So what, by law, is bullying and harassment, and what can you do about it as an employer?
Bullying and harassment are lumped together by the law as both of them can occur in the workplace and are unwanted and unwelcome behaviours and both terms are often used interchangeably, but their meanings are different.
Bullying is using behaviour to cause offence, insult or intimidate another person in the workplace. This can include using, or indeed misusing, power to humiliate or undermine them at work. Bullying can manifest from a colleague, boss or supervisor and can sometimes be instigated by a group of people. Bullying is often classed as a form of harassment.
Harassment is conduct that is not wanted and that demeans the person it effects and can be related to: gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religious belief and/or political opinion - but what can you actually do about it if you think this is happening in your workplace?
As an employer, you have a legal responsibility to stop any harassment or bullying in the workplace and to demonstrate to your employees that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated. Talking to the people involved and warning them that action will be taken if this continues goes a long way. Ignoring the situation in the hope it will go away is not an option, as you will quickly find yourself in an Employment Tribunal.
For more information about this article or any aspect of our employment and equality law solutions, give Colin Foote a call on 0845 834 0840
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