Other laws to combat harassment in the workplace 



These include:


• statutory and common law duties to take reasonable care to protect workers’ health, safety and welfare and to provide a workplace free from the risk of harassment;



• the employment contract, including the contractual right to work in a safe environment and the implied duty of mutual trust and confidence (see Chapter 3);



• the common law of negligence leading to reasonably foreseeable personal injury; 



• the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (only suitable for very serious cases);



• criminal law, including laws outlawing malicious communications;



• laws protecting workers from suffering any “detriment” for exercising or attempting to exercise specific statutory employment rights;


• unfair dismissal laws (see Chapter 10);



• anti-blacklisting laws (see Chapter 5);



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