Inappropriate treatment, harassment and bullying

Inappropriate treatment at the workplace means behaviour that is not generally considered acceptable and that knowingly and intentionally offends another person who feels they are powerless to defend themselves.Within the work community this is often called workplace bullying.

Any member of the work community can commit inappropriate treatment, either individually or as part of a group. It can be directed at workers and managers alike. Inappropriate treatment can also come from non-members of the work community, including customers or contractors.

Inappropriate treatment takes many forms. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, as soon as employers become aware of the situation, they must take action as quickly as possible.

Harassment

Harassment is when it is deemed that unwanted treatment is causing, or if it continues will cause, a health risk to the person being harassed. Harassment usually takes the form of repeated and prolonged oppression of another person or group. Examples of harassment or improper treatment include

• demeaning a person’s individual qualities, personality traits or private life
• belittling
• overlooking
• ignoring
• threats and mild physical violence
• exceeding management powers
• unilateral altering of agreed conditions
• continual and unjustified criticism of work performance
• unjustified unequal distribution of work tasks

Prolonged harassment usually first causes anxiety and psychosomatic symptoms. If the situation continues, it can worsen and lead to long periods of sick leave or premature retirement. Harassment can exacerbate the working atmosphere and make working less enjoyable and productive for all.

What can you do if you experience harassment at the workplace?

If the harasser is a supervisor or colleague, tell the person straight away that you don’t accept their behaviour.

If this doesn’t work or if you don’t dare to speak out, ask a colleague or employees’ representative (shop steward or occupational safety representative) to help. Together with them, ask the harasser to modify their conduct. It’s a good idea to have at least one other person present when demanding an end to the harassment. Then you can prove that the harasser knew that their behaviour was offensive, and if the harassment continues, the person is doing it on purpose.

If the harasser ignores the objections and continues harassing, they must be told that it will be reported to the employer. It is advisable to bring the matter to the attention of the occupational safety representative and/or shop steward as early as possible. If you are a PAM member, you can also get guidance and advice from PAM’s regional office on how to raise the matter and how to proceed at the workplace.

If the harasser is a customer, you can tell them in a way agreed at the workplace that their behaviour is unacceptable.

Employers are required to stop harassment

Employers or supervisors exercising management powers are required to intervene in all harassment at the workplace.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act also requires employees to refrain from harassment of other employees or other inappropriate treatment at the workplace. All managers, however, are responsible for correcting infringements by those under their supervision. If a lower-level manager fails to resolve the problems, this must be reported to the next level.

An employer is responsible for intervening only once harassment has been brought to a manager’s attention. If an employee is harassing another person and guidance and advice don’t help, an employer has management and supervisory rights to take disciplinary action.

Sometimes a harasser is a person with employer status. If the employer doesn’t stop their harassment of an employee when asked to and the harassment is harming the employee’s health, the employer can be charged with neglecting occupational safety or even an occupational safety offence.

An employer must also react to inappropriate treatment and harassment from customers. An employer doesn’t always have effective means to prevent bad behaviour by individuals outside the work community, but the whole work community needs to envisage scenarios in advance and plan how to deal with them.

Employees must be clear at what stage and in what way they are allowed to tell customers they are behaving badly. It must be agreed how to report and follow up situations and possibly monitor stress. Employees must be informed where they can get help.