UK Employment Law\ Employer \ Harrassment At Work
Workplace harassment
Running an efficient company or organisation can often mean managers being attentive to how well individuals work with each other. Sometimes there can be problems when one finds another’s actions or attitude offensive or unwelcome.
It is difficult to lay down guidelines as each person has different things they find acceptable or unacceptable. Harassment can be defined as anything which happens on an unsolicited basis or that offends on a personal level (failure to respect someone’s rights). Addressing such issues can boost morale and improve output.
Among the most difficult examples of the above is sexual or racial harassment. These can be defined as a lack of respect or behaviour focussed on gender or race that causes upset.
Other examples involve the treatment of people with disabilities or members of minorities.
Examples:
- spreading malicious rumours, or insulting someone;
- ridiculing someone, picking on them or setting them up to fail;
- excluding someone or victimising them;
- unfair treatment;
- misuse of power or position;
- unwelcome sexual advances;
- threatening job security without foundation;
- preventing individuals from making career progression by blocking promotion or training.
Protection from Harassment Act 1997
(1) A person must not pursue a course of conduct:
(a) which amounts to harassment of another, and
(b) which he knows or ought to know amounts to harassment of the other.
(2) For the purposes of this section, the person whose course of conduct is in question ought to know that it amounts to harassment of another if a reasonable person in possession of the same information would think the course of conduct amounted to harassment of the other.
(3) Subsection (1) does not apply to a course of conduct if the person who pursued it shows:
(a) that it was pursued for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime,
(b) that it was pursued under any enactment or rule of law or to comply with any condition or requirement imposed by any person under any enactment, or
(c) that in the particular circumstances the pursuit of the course of conduct was reasonable.
Cyber-bullying
This is a term often heard used in relation school children. However, it can happen in the workplace too. People can be bullied by receiving emails or text messages that intimidate them.
Employers should be alert to any such situations and make sure employees are aware of the standards of conduct that are acceptable and unacceptable.
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