this video I want to discuss a couple of words that I come across regularly and
speaking with employees that are bandied about and thrown about in a very loose
ill-advised way those words are bullying and harassment I'm often told by various
employees that they are suffering from the bullying or harassment or both in
the workplace what they don't understand however is that bullying and harassment
have quite specific definitions within the context of the law and the ordinary
meaning that you might attribute to a word like bullying or a word like
harassing doesn't necessarily apply to behavior in the workplace which must in
order to support some sort of a claim some sort of a legal action must
fall within the legal definition of bullying or harassment so just to
clarify that bullying from the perspective of employment law is
repeated inappropriate behavior which offends the dignity of the worker of the
employee so repeated inappropriate behavior would suggest that the behavior
must go on over a period of time there's no specific period of time specified in
the law or alongside that definition however it has been held in one or two
high court cases or certainly civil court cases that you're looking at
probably a period of perhaps three more or six months now obviously if you
suffer behavior that does offend your dignity over a period
of three months you could well make the argument successfully that you have been bullied
but I have seen a high court case there where the judgment was that the behavior
in order to constitute bullying as understood by the law as understood by
the various bits of legislation in the workplace would be repeated over a good
period of time perhaps six months but certainly I would have thought three
months to six months that's bullying so bullying is not where the employer might
refuse to give you a bonus that you think that you're entitled to or might
give you extra jobs to do or might change your role might change the tasks
or duties or responsibilities you have might ask you to work in a different
location if your contract of employment provides for that then none of those
things would be of itself bullying behavior perhaps they might form part of a
pattern of behavior but a of themselves would not be sufficient to constitute
bullying from a legal perspective as the first thing second thing is harassment
again I've heard employees regularly frequently repeatedly say to me my boss
or my employer is bullying and harassing me or I believe I'm being bullied or I
believe I'm being harassed harassment is actually a discrimination related
concept in Irish employment law and in order to bring a claim about harassment
it must be according to the employment equality acts 1998 2015 the harassment
must arise on one of the nine discriminatory grounds so that would be
gender civil status family status sexual orientation age disability membership of
the travelling community and so forth what the harassment the behavior about
which you complain the behavior which you described as harassing behavior or
harassment must be on one of the nine
discrimination grounds and that's a key distinction because if you cannot ground
your complaint in one of the discrimination grounds then you're not
gonna succeed when a harassment claim under the employment equality acts
1998 sexual harassment den is a different ballgame again but it is a
discrimination based claim under the employment equality acts 1998 the key
point I'm making to you is this I'm being bullied and harrassed at work I am being
bullied and harassed by my employer I am being bullied harassed by my supervisor
or manager these words are words that can be thrown around easily and you may
be doing so or the employee may be doing so given these words their ordinary
meaning but what I'm saying is that when it comes to an employment related claim
to the WRC or perhaps suing for a breach of contract or perhaps commencing legal
proceedings in courts then the concept of bullying and the concept of
harassment are very different to the ordinary meaning to the or me
understanding I hope you take this into account and you do get legal advice
before you commence any complaint or action to the WRC certainly there's no
difficulty raising any grievance internally alleging bullying or
harassment but when it comes to making a complaint to the WRC or anywhere else
for that matter then the these words have particular specific meanings and
definitions I hope you find this video useful if you do give it a thumbs up
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which I every Saturday morning repeatedly and with consistency show up
with a video that attempts to explain in plain language some aspect of Irish law
or Irish business thanks for watching