The cost of bullying to organisations

Bullying and harassment at work have consequences both for individuals and for organisations.

The advice and conciliation service Acas sets out that bullying and harassment are not only unacceptable on moral grounds but may, if unchecked or badly handled, create serious problems for an organisation. It says that the costs to organisations can include:

• poor morale and poor employee relations;

• loss of respect for managers and supervisors;

• poor performance;

• lost productivity;

• absence;

• resignations;

• damage to company reputation; and

• tribunal and other court cases and payment of unlimited compensation.

Guidance produced by college and lecturers’ union UCU’s health and safety adviser, Stopping bullying and harassment at work, says that failure to address the issues of harassment and bullying in the workplace can have serious consequences and adds high staff turnover, costly retraining and loss of client/customer confidence to the list above.

Scottish teachers’ union EIS says: “People working in a hostile environment or who are fearful and resentful do not work well. The result may be an increase in the rate of short term and long term absences and deterioration in quality of work and commitment. All of the systems which operate to make a good working environment break down. Teaching and learning suffer.”

And the general union Unite says: “At the workplace, harassment and bullying degrade individuals and create a work environment of fear and intimidation which undermines trade union unity. It can also be a contributing factor to other workplace issues, such as unequal pay, job insecurity, sickness absence and lack of progression.”

Another cost, in unionised workplaces, can be industrial action. In March 2013, for example, members of BECTU and the NUJ walked out in a 12-hour strike at the BBC over compulsory redundancies, excessive workloads and bullying and harassment within the corporation.

Construction union UCATT and Unite members employed by South Ayrshire Council’s property and maintenance department took part in a week-long strike over bullying and intimidation in March 2015.

The dispute involved more than 100 workers and concerned the conduct of the council’s property maintenance manager. The action was called after the council’s internal grievance procedure was exhausted. Workers made 37 separate complaints about bullying, victimisation, goading and intimidation against him. An investigation produced a report of almost 1,000 pages and resulted in the grievance being upheld in part with a recommendation that the manager attend a management course and be monitored for a three-month period. A subsequent appeal was rejected by a panel of elected members. However, the manager concerned remained in post throughout the investigation despite the trade unions’ request that he be suspended, and that the complaints should be dealt with under the Council’s disciplinary procedures.

There has also been a long-running dispute involving bullying at Swindon Hospital. in December 2011, members of the GMB general union working as porters and housekeepers in catering and cleaning and other support roles at the Swindon PFI hospital voted overwhelmingly for strike action in protest against bullying and discrimination at the hospital. They called on Carillion management to end a “culture of bullying on the contract” and for an end to discrimination in the application of pay and conditions on the contract. Their claims will shortly be heard at an employment tribunal.