LRD guides and handbook November 2012

Bullying and harassment at work - a guide for trade unionists

Chapter 2

Criminal offence

Causing a person harassment, alarm or distress can also amount to a criminal offence and in some circumstances may lead to a police prosecution under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. The penalty may be more severe if the offence is motivated by a “protected characteristic”, such as race, sex and so on:

In a shocking example from 2004, racially aggravated harassment led to three-year jail sentences for three motorway maintenance workers at Amey Mouchel’s Walsall depot. They bullied their Muslim co-worker over a 10-month period, including tying him to railings, hosing him with cold water, trying to force-feed him bacon, placing an item made to look like a bomb in his locker and setting his trousers on fire. They filmed their actions on a mobile phone.