How Should you Deal with Instances of Severe Workplace Bullying
The act of bullying can have a damaging effect on an individual and tends to isolate the victim at the workplace. Repeated acts of bullying are directed towards offending, intimidating, humiliating and degrading an individual or a specific group of people. Workplace bullying in Ireland can invite some serious trouble for the offender as it violates the right to dignity at work of the victim. The victim can be subjected to physical bullying or verbal bullying. There are several European countries, which also refer to the act of bullying as mobbing. Such behaviour is also manifested in the form of:
Isolation and social exclusion
Intimidation
Repeated requests for achieving impossible targets
Spreading rumours and damaging an individual's reputation
Use of obscene or aggressive language
As per the contents of the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2008, all employers are directed to prohibit workplace harassment. This also includes sexual harassment. No discrimination should be made on the grounds of civil status, religion, race, sexual orientation, age, gender, family status, disability and membership of the Traveller community. If you are still facing some tough times at your workplace and on grounds, which are not covered by the Employment Equality Acts, you can still benefit out of the legal rights.
An act of bullying at the workplace can adversely affect the health and safety of the employees and even cause catastrophic injuries [http://www.personalinjurydirect.ie/accident-claims/damages.html]. As per Section 8 of the Act, the employer is bound to prevent any kind of improper behaviour or conduct of one section of the employees towards others.
In case you are bullied at your workplace, you should be aware of how to deal with it. You should make it clear to the offender, that their behaviour is totally unacceptable. If the bullying continues even after taking on the informal approach, then you might consider lodging a formal complaint. You can report the act to your manager or to the department head. The organisation should have a clearly laid out policy stating the course of action after such a complaint is lodged. The charges would then be investigated by an impartial body, which would take into account issues such as confidentiality of the proceedings and also see to the fact that the rights of both the parties are maintained.
In case you feel that the complaint lodged by you has not been properly dealt with by the employer, then you can go ahead and approach the Rights Commissioner Service as stated by the Health and Safety Authority Code of Practice. You may file the complaint under any of the following grounds namely: Workplace health and safety, unfair dismissal and employment equality.
As per the statutes, the complaints that are filed in compliance to the Health and Welfare Act or the Employment Equality Acts must be made within a span of 6 months. This time span can be increased by another 6 months if there is a 'reasonable cause' that prompted the delay in matters. The claims for unfair dismissal should also be made within 6 months time from the date of termination. This can also be extended for another six months in exceptional cases.
As per the contents of the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2008, all employers are directed to prohibit workplace harassment. This also includes sexual harassment. No discrimination should be made on the grounds of civil status, religion, race, sexual orientation, age, gender, family status, disability and membership of the Traveller community. If you are still facing some tough times at your workplace and on grounds, which are not covered by the Employment Equality Acts, you can still benefit out of the legal rights.
An act of bullying at the workplace can adversely affect the health and safety of the employees and even cause catastrophic injuries [http://www.personalinjurydirect.ie/accident-claims/damages.html]. As per Section 8 of the Act, the employer is bound to prevent any kind of improper behaviour or conduct of one section of the employees towards others.
In case you are bullied at your workplace, you should be aware of how to deal with it. You should make it clear to the offender, that their behaviour is totally unacceptable. If the bullying continues even after taking on the informal approach, then you might consider lodging a formal complaint. You can report the act to your manager or to the department head. The organisation should have a clearly laid out policy stating the course of action after such a complaint is lodged. The charges would then be investigated by an impartial body, which would take into account issues such as confidentiality of the proceedings and also see to the fact that the rights of both the parties are maintained.
In case you feel that the complaint lodged by you has not been properly dealt with by the employer, then you can go ahead and approach the Rights Commissioner Service as stated by the Health and Safety Authority Code of Practice. You may file the complaint under any of the following grounds namely: Workplace health and safety, unfair dismissal and employment equality.
As per the statutes, the complaints that are filed in compliance to the Health and Welfare Act or the Employment Equality Acts must be made within a span of 6 months. This time span can be increased by another 6 months if there is a 'reasonable cause' that prompted the delay in matters. The claims for unfair dismissal should also be made within 6 months time from the date of termination. This can also be extended for another six months in exceptional cases.
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