Bullying and harassment

Introduction

Bullying and harassment in a workplace are serious matters, and employers are responsible for taking reasonable steps to prevent such behaviour.

The anti-discrimination legislation makes it unlawful in employment or vocational training to harass someone on the grounds of:

• sex
• marital status
• gender reassignment
• race
• disability
• religion/belief
• sexual orientation 
• age

The Sex Discrimination Act also explicitly outlaws sexual harassment.

Bullying and harassment are unacceptable on moral grounds and may, if they are allowed to go unchecked or are badly handled, create serious problems for your business. Harassment is also against the law and can result in an employment tribunal or other civil claims against the employer and large awards in compensation.

Bullying and harassment can also have a bad effect on your business in other ways, including poor performance, low staff morale and poor employee relations, loss of respect for management, increase in absence, higher staff turnover and damage to your business' reputation.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• What is meant by bullying and harassment?
• Why does bullying and harassment occur?
• The impact of bullying and harassment
• Recognising bullying or harassment
• Preventing bullying and harassment
• Drawing up an anti-bullying and harassment policy
• Dealing with bullying and harassment claims
• Here's how I developed an anti bullying and harassment policy

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