Employers ‘failing’ over bullying
EMPLOYERS in the North- east stand accused of failing to tackle workplace bullying, in a report out today.
The study, published by the Chartered Management Institute to coincide with Ban Bullying at Work Day, follows the Employment Bill debate in Parliament earlier this week which outlined legislation to deal with workplace disputes.
The CMI report suggested that poor management skills lay at the heart of the problem and it warned that unless organisations educate their staff they risked long-term damage to their businesses.
The latest Government estimates put the cost to the UK economy of workplace bullying at £13.75 billion, with 100 million days lost in productivity.
The report said employers in the region were failing in their legal duty to protect staff, with 70% of managers claiming to have witnessed instances of bullying in the past three years.
Public sector workers experienced the highest level of victimisation. Most of those surveyed blamed “lack of management skills”.
