Health and safety risk assessment

One good way of taking collective steps to tackle bullying is to ask the employer to carry out a health and safety risk assessment. Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, employers must assess risks to health and safety from hazards at work. This includes the risk of employees developing stress-related illnesses because of their work. The HSE Managers’ guide to tackling workplace stress identifies bullying and harassment as potential causes of work-related stress.

The obligation to conduct a risk assessment is owed by the employer. However, the union can use its own survey results to support the need for a risk assessment. The TUC recommends a step-by-step approach, based on the HSE guidance, Stress at work:

Step One: Identify potential sources of stress

The employer should systematically try to identify existing and potential stressors within the workplace. A checklist, developed in consultation with the union, could be used as a starting point.

Step Two: Find out how employees are feeling

Having identified potential sources of stress, employers should try to find out how much stress employees are feeling. The only way to do this is for the employer to ask them. This can be done by means of a questionnaire to all staff, or by asking employees who take sick leave whether they think their illness was related to stress at work. The employer would need to explain to staff why this information is being sought, and reassure them that they will not be blamed. Other ways of gathering information about possible sources of stress include examining sickness absence trends, staff turnover and “employee satisfaction surveys”.

Step Three: Check existing processes

Employers need to check whether the processes they have in place are effective at eliminating the risks that are associated with stress and bullying and if not, what further steps are required.

Step Four: Make sure procedures are being implemented on the ground

Safety reps have an important role to play in ensuring the policies in place to prevent stress, violence, bullying and harassment are actually being implemented — and to see whether more needs to be done. For example, if regular departmental meetings are supposed to take place, check that they are actually happening and that they provide a genuine, effective and trustful mechanism for sharing information and discussing concerns. Management and employee training is vital and not an “optional extra”. Reps should be consulted regularly.

Step Five: Take remedial action

Once any problems have been identified, the employer must take remedial action. Priorities should be agreed jointly, and it should be clear who has responsibility for implementing them. Organisational and management problems must be taken seriously. The TUC says: “If what is needed is a change of organisational culture, a review of management training, or an improvement in internal communication, then these issues must be implemented according to an agreed timetable”.