Other laws relevant to a claim for workplace harassment

Other laws to combat harassment in the workplace include:

• The duty to take reasonable care to protect workers’ health, safety and welfare and to provide a workplace free from the risk of harassment (see Canniffe v East Riding of Yorkshire Council [2000] IRLR 555);

• The employment contract (including the contractual right to work in a safe environment and the implied duty of mutual trust and confidence);

• The common law of negligence leading to reasonably foreseeable personal injury (see, for example, Waters v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2000] IRLR 720);

• The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (only suitable for very serious cases of harassment);

• Criminal law, including laws outlawing malicious communications;

• Unfair dismissal laws;

• Anti-blacklisting laws;

• Laws protecting whistleblowers and workers engaged in lawful trade union activities.