Banish the office bullies,

TUC tells employers

With recent research showing that few UK workplaces escape the scourge of the office or factory bully, the TUC has today (Wednesday) called on employers to do more to protect their staff from victimisation and harassment.
To coincide with National Ban Bullying at Work Day, the TUC has produced a guide to help union safety reps work with employers to create a new workplace culture where bullying, intimidation and harassment is a thing of the past.
The new guide cites recent research from the University of Manchester which suggests that one in ten workers was bullied in the last six months, one in four have fallen victim in the last five years, and 47 per cent of employees have witnessed bullying at work.
The TUC guide says that anyone can find themselves on the receiving end of an attack from a workplace bully, and bullies can be colleagues or managers. Managers are often bullied by their bosses too.
Worst of all, says the guide, are those workplaces where a culture has developed that condones the criticism of staff in front of colleagues, or that allows bullies to shout at colleagues, regularly make an individual the butt of jokes, or send victims abusive emails or texts at work.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'People on the receiving end of cutting remarks or verbal outbursts from the workplace bully are the ones paying a heavy price for employers' failure to deal with the problem. The stress and anxiety felt by the victims can make them physically ill, lose all their self-confidence and mean that they dread coming into work.
'But employers pay the price as well. Staff being bullied are likely to take more time off because the harassment is making them ill and the low morale they suffer as a result almost always affects their ability to do their job, making them much less productive.
'But bullying is not hard to tackle and employers who ignore the problem and fail to protect their staff are breaking the law. Every workplace should have a policy which makes clear that intimidating behaviour towards colleagues will not be tolerated and that those who persist in undermining their fellow members of staff will be dealt with severely.'