3. RECOGNISING BULLYING AND HARASSMENT

To tackle harassment and bullying at work, it is necessary to identify the type of behaviour considered unacceptable, and to provide examples so that people understand what is meant by it.

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) publish useful guidance, available in print and online. Its advice leaflet. Bullying and harassment at work: a guide for managers and employers, updated in 2010, says that, for practical purposes, bullying and harassment involve something that is “unwelcome, unwarranted and causes a detrimental effect.

Acas defines “bullying” as “offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour, an abuse or misuse of power through means intended to undermine, humiliate, denigrate or injure the recipient”. It defines “harassment” as “unwanted conduct affecting the dignity of men and women in the workplace. It may be related to age, sex, race, disability, religion, sexual orientation, nationality or any personal characteristic of the individual, and may be persistent or an isolated incident”.

The key to both concepts is that the behaviour is “unwanted”: “Key to understanding whether either bullying or harassment has occurred is not whether the conduct was intended on the part of the perpetrator but whether it was unwanted on the part of the recipient”.

As the Acas guidance points out, definitions may be of limited use: “If employees complain they are being bullied or harassed then they have a grievance which must be dealt with, regardless of whether or not their complaint accords with a standard definition”.

Bullying may take place over a period of time, but it can also occur as a single, grossly offensive act — and some legal cases involving claims of harassment have concluded that a single incident amounts to unlawful harassment (see Chapter 2).