BULLYING & HARASSMENT AT WORK
Bullying & Harassment at Work
At Fresh Thinking, we can tick the following boxes should you need:
Need advice or support on employee claims of bullying and harassment at work?
Not sure how to investigate such claims?
Wondering whether to ignore the problem and hope it will go away?
Bullying and Harassment in the workplace is quite common and often employers are not equipped or even sure how to deal with such complaints. The worst thing that an employer can do, is do nothing at all so it is essential that employers adapt a zero tolerance approach as part of their culture.
Essentially, what is the difference between the two?
The Health and Safety Authority define bullying as:
"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."
The HSA, also provide a useful code of practice on same and offer some examples that may constitute bullying including:
Purposely undermining someone;
Targeting someone for special negative treatment;
Manipulation of an individual‘s reputation;
Social exclusion or isolation;
Intimidation;
Aggressive or obscene language;
Jokes that are obviously offensive to one individual by spoken word or email;
Intrusion by pestering, spying and stalking;
Unreasonable assignments to duties which are obviously unfavourable to one individual;
Repeated requests with impossible deadline or impossible tasks
Harassment on the other hand is defined under Section (14) of the Employment Equality Acts 1998 – 2015 as any form of unwanted conduct related to any of the discriminatory grounds which has the purpose or effect of violating a person's dignity and creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the person.
The nine grounds of discrimination include:
Gender
Civil status
Family status, for example, as a parent of a child
Sexual orientation
Age
Disability
Race
Religious belief
Membership of the Traveller community
These grounds are often referred to as ‘special characteristics’ and can impact on the various functions of HRM including recruitment and selection, performance management, disciplinary procedures etc., hence it is important that you provide regular training and support to your management team at all levels so that they are well advised and ready to deal with all eventualities.
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We are experienced HR consultants with a practical knowledge of employment legislation and how it transfers into the workplace. We offer advice and support to SME's and organisations in relation to all aspects of the employee/emplorer relationship and our clients have access to our library of resources that is contained in our members section.....
To find out about becoming a Member and to access our library and resource section please contact us by email or completing the Contact Form below.
Fresh Thinking does not provide legal advice to our clients - Our mission is to help you avoid any breach of employment law by best practice in workplace policies and procedures....
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If you are looking for a more information on Employment Law please contact us on 087 7177 888 or complete the contact form below.