Health and safety law

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA) requires employers to protect the health, safety and welfare at work of their employees (Section 2(1)) and to provide a safe working environment (Section 2(2)(e)). This includes protection from bullying and harassment.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, require employers to assess the nature and scale of workplace risks to health and safety, to ensure there are proper control measures in place and to take action to remove or avoid those risks wherever possible, so far as reasonably practicable.

The HSE states that there should be systems in place to deal with interpersonal conflict such as bullying and harassment.

The HSE publication, Tackling work-related stress: a managers’ guide, identifies bullying and harassment as causes of stress, in the category “Relationships”. Its guidance says: “Bullying and harassment are two forms of behaviour that are unacceptable in organisations and almost inevitably generate stress and can lead to stress-related illnesses.”

Safety reps can use their legal rights under the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 to investigate sources of stress, such as bullying and harassment. See Chapter 4 for guidance on surveying members about bullying and harassment, and on the role of the health and safety risk assessment.

Reps also have the right to take up members’ health and safety complaints and talk to them in confidence, and can legitimately raise bullying and harassment as a health and safety issue at safety committees. Safety policies can be reviewed under Section 2(3) of the HSWA to include a section on bullying and how to deal with it.

Sections 44 and 100 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 are also relevant. These provisions state that a person must not suffer a detriment or be dismissed or made redundant for raising health and safety concerns with the employer or leaving or refusing to return to a place of work in circumstances of serious and imminent danger, or taking steps to protect themselves or others in these circumstances. “Circumstances of danger” includes danger of violence from other employees (Harvest Press Limited v MacCaffrey [1999] IRLR 778).

Sometimes a bullying grievance is best dealt with collectively. The TUC emphasises that it is vital to respect the member’s right to privacy and to inform other members about an issue only when it has been agreed with the member. For more guidance on tackling grievances collectively, see the LRD booklet Disciplinary and grievance procedures (2012).