National action case study — the Royal Mail

For many years, the post office had one of the worst records on bullying. A survey of over 2,000 members of the CWU communication workers’ union in 2001, carried out by LRD, found that over a quarter (27%) of respondents had been bullied or harassed at work in the previous two years. Over half knew of or had witnessed someone else being bullied at work. A “harassment hotline” set up by the CWU in 2000, received over 9,000 calls in its first two years. There was also evidence of sexual harassment. In a survey of post office managers by their union Amicus in 2002, a third had been subjected to “uninvited sexual teasing” and verbal abuse, while almost two-thirds said they had seen a colleague being bullied. Two-thirds said bullying had taken the form of undue pressure to complete work, one in 20 complained of uninvited pressure for “sexual favours”, and others said they had received letters, phone calls or materials of a sexual nature.

The Royal Mail’s poor record led to an intervention by the Equal Opportunities Commission (now the Equality and Human Rights Commission). The union negotiated a national agreement, which was signed in 2004. Working with the Commission, CWU evaluated its existing procedures and realised that its members lacked confidence in the CWU raising their issues of bullying and harassment. Since then, it has focused resources on tackling the issue effectively, making sure a series of new mechanisms were put into operation.

Action agreed by the Royal Mail included:

• a new harassment and complaints procedure, ensuring that complaints are handled appropriately and providing support for victims of harassment;

• the appointment and training of 22 “independent investigators” to handle formal complaints of sexual and other forms of harassment, in situations where a complaint needs to be handled other than through the normal management channels;

• monthly and quarterly monitoring of all formal complaints of sexual harassment within Royal Mail, and all employment tribunal cases of sexual harassment;

• a monthly rolling survey of staff views on harassment and other issues, asking whether individuals had themselves been harassed; and

• the implementation of an extensive training programme for all employees, management and the Royal Mail Board.

An 0800 helpline is available to members 24/7 and is advertised in the CWU’s magazine as well as internally through periodic reminders.

Eight years on, National Equality Officer Linda Roy told LRD: “I think we can honestly say that we are in a much healthier position thanks to this focused work which was undertaken. However, given the anecdotal information linked to bullying and harassment that my department gets, we are still concerned that the numbers of people using the mechanisms are not representative of the real problem which currently exists”.

The CWU 24/7 hotline number is: FREEPHONE 0800 107 1909.

Details of the CWU’s work on tackling harassment in Royal Mail and elsewhere can be found on its website at: www.cwu.org/equal-opportunities.html. The union has produced an Equal Opportunities Toolkit 2012, available from its website.