Workplace Bullying Organisational Harassment
national |
worker & community struggles and protests |
opinion/analysis 
Friday April 11, 2008 09:51
by Dave Walsh
Competency Complacency
There is fundamental little that can be done to counter bullying in the workplace.
There is fundamental little that can be done to counter bullying in the workplace if there is an existing culture that condones it or if there is a industrial wide culture of it within particular sectors. There is little to protect the welfare of workers in particular in temporary or part time work. The fact is that when it comes down to harassment it is your word against a group of people and if a culture has prevailed for a long period, it is unlikely that the culture will be changed for one or two individuals. The fact is that the health and safety authority has only the power to ask the organisation for its anti bullying policy. The time has come for workplace health to be looked proactively. Many of our institutions and businesses are old and long established, and the structure and cultures within them have become stagnant. Workers in some sectors and within some departments or sections pass through like and assembly line, while H/R may be aware of the problem, the largely see it as one of frustratingly having to move people or rehire, while the actual working conditions are never looked at in real terms and problems are never addressed. H/R view is often that addressing the problem may cost both money and disruption, and their main emphasis is on keeping work flowing. So what you end up with is not a health happy work environment, but one in which only individuals that reflect the prevailing environment can tolerate. The emphasis must be that the individuals that pass through are somewhat strange and status quo is thought to be returned once the trouble maker is gone. In terms of addressing health in a proactive way, Ireland is still in the dark ages. The answers are to vast to consider not making changes as being in anyway intelligent or moral. The department of enterprise trade and employment has a section that drafts ledgislation on bullying, but does not seem to have enforcment powers. Purhaps its time to change things..
Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5The Code of Practice on the Prevention and Management of Workplace Bullying, 2007 at http://www.hsa.ie/eng/Work_Safely/Workplace_Health/Bull...ying/ states that "4.5 Monitoring: The policy should include a commitment to monitoring and recording incidents of bullying at work. Statistics and information gathered from such monitoring should be recorded and used to assist the employer take corrective action or achieve continuous improvement in their bullying prevention policy and procedure."
It is up to employees and unions to force non-compliant employers to collect statistics and to make them available, using Freedom of Information requests and publishing the results if necessary.
"Statistics" could include direct measures like the number of complaints and their outcomes, the number of employment appeals or legal cases, the amount spent on legal fees and settlements. They could also include indirect indicators of stress like days of sick leave, number of staff on long-term sick leave, number of staff on stress-related leave and staff turnover rates. The Code of Practice would ideally specify a minimum set of comparable measures.
Comparing these statistics between companies in similar industries quickly identifies employers with systemic bullying problems. For an example see the Irish Universities Litigation League tables at http://www.iol.ie/~stuartneilson/bullying/bullying_iesc...c.htm - "Bullying of Academics" is going one step on and publishing FoI results collected by its members at http://bulliedacademics.blogspot.com/index.html.
I was bullied by a manager for over 12 months. I made a formal complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman with regards to the way the Council dealt with my Grievance and Appeal. I was informed that they were unable to investigate personnel matters. The Grievance was based on Bullying and Oppressive Behaviour the witnesses where not questioned on these matters.
There are public policy issues beyond my individual dispute in the way in which the system is administered, the inability for a grievance to be addressed fairly and dispassionately, the need for the equivalent of an ombudsman to be able to investigate such contested cases.
There are 34 County Councils and 238 District Councils in England, 32 in Scotland and 22 in Wales. How many employees have been subjected to Bullying and Oppressive Behaviour by managers who have in effect dealt with the matters internally and reached the required result the council wishes to achieve. Local councils investigate there own complaints, which I feel is a conflict of interest.
I feel this matter needs addressing and the way to achieve this is through Legislation in the House of Commons, by introducing a Local Government Bill, or Parliament to extend the powers of the Local Government Ombudsman to include personnel issues. Could you please raise these issues in the house of Lords.
Please sign the petition. http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/08Bullying/ . When you complete the petition - it will email you a link which you have to click to actually have your name added to the list. Please do remember to check your spam folder if your email doesn't appear and make sure your name is on the list!
Thank you for your assistance.
The health and safety authority can offer little more than asking an organisation for their anti bullying statement.
In terms of being a culture save yourself not the organisation or the people in it. It is a tough thing to say and goes against everything I believe in. But thats the truth, when your alone you are alone, and where its a culture you are screwed. The organisation simple will not tollerate what you may want or need to do.
The truth is the health and safety authority simply will not be there for you in any meaningful way, the anti bullying centre in trinity may offer you counselling but won't do a whole lot.
In the end to a large extent where it has been organisational harasment, its your word (the trouble maker) against everyone elses.
Some times all you can do is save yourself...
I would love to be a part of a body that is proactive in suporting individuals who are harassed by an organisation. I believe that if its found to have occured accross an organisation, this should be criminalised and emotional and psychological abuse should carry the same weight as a physical asault....
I am affraid however that we live in a country where the many are ruled by the few, and this change will not come easy. The culture is a stucture of the culture we live in, where being right just isnt enough.
Until we are prepaired to make the changes that are needed people will continue to suffer and feel vulnerable.
I am sorry if I sound negative.... But for someone who has experienced this, it just is...
My experiences have left me hate filled and not liking the workplace much.
I would love to set up an organisation that stops these cultures of harrasment.
To a large extent we live in a country that has continued to ignore psychological injury and is doing nothing to look at the psychological wellbeing of the nation.
Bullying has been endemic in the gards and the civil service and therby ignored or at worse perpetuated by the government (the culture of tight lips and backhanders)...
It is time for the health and safety authority and the anti bullying centre to have the government extend their powers and draft stonger legislation, to untie their hands............
Your one recourse should not be the labour court or the rights commissioner, for which you have only limited time for recourse, so if the organisation can continue to harras you for an extended period after you leave, you have nothing.......
These powers need to be extended, just as if it were a crime that was commited.......
My goodness , i thought for one moment you were referring to Big Soap Fans who bully their Partners following a ''rivetting'' episode of
Eastenders or God Forbid ''Corry'' and the usual high standard of acting involved in the making of such anti family trash'
Same episodes will guide the ''Family '' over the holiday period and straight into the NU YEAR ,craftily written to have an impact like never before.
Who am i fooling ,i was recently in a public house in Dublin ,i counted 17 males glued into ''Corry'' and Eastenders was to follow' they were more
than likely there as they had no home to go to but are now following episodes like sheep to a slaughter ,i wont say house as it is probably ''GONE''
while The Applicant begins its NU LIFE thanks to the high standard of acting re the above mentioned.
Sorry u were on about work and bullying in the workplace so it is only fair to mention the Parish Priest of North Wicklow ( Bray ) who systematically
set up the Parish Secretary and almost drove the Lady to Bray Head for a one way walk , ( It is known to have happened how a poor lady went for a
walk up Bray Head and was '''found'''' 14 months later ) however that was NOT THE CASE.
The Former Parish Priest ,who from the pulpit broke down in front of his parishioners citing ILLNESS for his Breakdown has not been seen in an age
. Keep up the good work and dont be pushed out of your job and good luck to you .
Michael above referred to bullying but there was also sexual harassment and unfair dismissal and the abuse of work practices amongst FAS staff who were illegally put into a full time person's job for over 7 months when she was unfairly dismissed and all of this happened in a Catholic Church in Bray.
If you check out the two links below one highlights the FAS aspect of things - Supervisor was known to have porn in the workplace but HE remained there for another 2 years while the person who complained about his actions (a female) was fired.
This is the subject of an Equality Tribunal hearing shortly.
There is an appeal in to the Unfair Dismissal - Parish Priest did not pay the award for unfair procedures. In any case it was a prejudiced hearing the might of the Catholic Church up against a poor unfortunate soul 'abused' by the Church when she was unfairly dismissed. Parish Priest also lost the case before the Rights Commissioner for giving the employee NO CONTRACT FOR 3 YEARS!!!! He did pay that award. All the photocopies from the hearings and case can be seen at the links below.
There is very little remedy for the worker in Ireland. Power of the employer money etc., wins the day.
We only had to take a look at Prime Time the other night to see the abuses that abound in our fair land.
Hopefully some of those named and shamed will have their heads roll shortly.
It is time these uncaring hard nosed people got their just desserts. The wheel turns slowly but it turns. In my case over 3 years but it is getting there.
One word of advice - NEVER EVER GIVE IN to the Bullies. KEEP UP THE FIGHT forever!!
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