The Dignity at Work Partnership

Unions have a long history of engaging effectively with these issues. In particular, in 2004 the predecessor to the Department for Business Information and Skills, the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) announced the Dignity at Work Partnership to eliminate bullying and discrimination at work, led by Amicus (now Unite). The project steering group included representatives from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Acas, the TUC and anti-bullying charity the Andrea Adams Trust. Employers involved included Legal and General Assurance, BAe Systems, the Chemical Industries Association, Remploy, Royal Mail and British Telecom.

The project fed into many initiatives, including the Dignity at Work Action Pack, produced by Unite and BERR, consisting of case studies, templates, checklists and examples of good practice. You can download a copy from the Unite Dignity at Work webpage.

The research commissioned by the Dignity at Work project made the following core findings, which have influenced the development of policies across all sectors:

• the most successful approach to tackling bullying and harassment is one of zero tolerance;

• there is a clear business case for dealing effectively with bullying and harassment at work. Some of the costs highlighted by the research are summarised in the first chapter;

• policies are crucial — they set standards for acceptable behaviour and make it clear to individuals what their responsibilities are towards each other;

• strong leadership is crucial. Leaders and senior managers must take the lead in tackling bullying and harassment, to show employees they take the problem seriously;

• UK workplaces are increasingly target driven environments, with a shift away from people focused management, towards command and control cultures;

• early and informal intervention to resolve complaints and conflicts is core to effective intervention. The earlier an issue is resolved, the better for all parties concerned;

• awareness raising programmes and training are important in achieving change, but must be both mandatory and interactive to work; and

• bullying at work is best tackled through a partnership of management, trade union reps and HR practitioners.