Bullying in the workplace

This section applies to all categories of staff who may work in a business, including workers, employees, contractors, partners, or a director (collectively referred to as workers in this article), but not volunteers.

Bullying at work is when someone tries to intimidate a member of staff, often in the presence of colleagues. It's usually, though not always, done to someone in a less senior position through an abuse or misuse of power whereby the more junior colleague is undermined or humiliated.

Acas defines bullying as regular intimidation that undermines the confidence and capability of the victim. It is similar to harassment, which is where someone's behaviour is offensive – for example, making abusive remarks about someone's sex, race, religion or sexual orientation.

The terms bullying and harassment are often used interchangeably, and bullying is often seen as a form of harassment.

There is no specific legislation in the UK which protects workers against bullying and therefore it is not possible to make a legal claim directly about bullying. Bullying complaints can, however, be made under laws covering discrimination and harassment.

Your legal duty

There is a legal duty imposed on all employers to give all reasonable support to their workers to make sure that they are able to carry out their duties without harassment or disruption by other workers. The courts have also found that employers have a common law duty to take care of their workers and to ensure that they are not subjected to bad treatment or bullying. You are not liable where you were not aware that a worker was being bullied, or, if you were aware but had done everything practicable to protect the worker from any bullying/harassment in the workplace.

In some circumstances a worker will also have protection from bullying under the Protection from Harassment Act, which allows the aggrieved person 6 years (3 years in Scotland) from the date of the bullying incident to bring a claim in the county court, High Court or (in Scotland) the sheriff court or the Court of Session.

Examples of bullying behaviour

Bullying includes abuse, physical or verbal violence, humiliation and undermining someone's confidence. A worker is probably being bullied if, for example, they are:

• Constantly picked on
• Humiliated in front of colleagues
• Regularly unfairly treated
• Physically or verbally abused
• Blamed for problems caused by others
• Always given too much to do, so that they regularly fail in their work
• Regularly threatened with the sack
• Unfairly passed over for promotion or denied training opportunities

Bullying can be face-to-face, in writing, over the phone or by fax or email.