IN a week when several employees of Japanese corporations based in Britain took legal proceedings against their employers alleging bullying and harassment, an organisation representing Japanese white collar middle management this week set up a "bullying hotline" to gauge the extent of the problem. Intimidation by bosses is adding to the burden of managers troubled by work pressures in an enfeebled economy. Middle management is being targeted by companies trying to restructure with many executives being pressurised into resignation or accepting demotion on reduced pay.

A spokesman for the managers' group behind the agony advice service said that nearly 2,000 workers have so far telephoned, some telling of ostracism in the further reaches of the office to pursue unproductive tasks and, in some cases, physical and verbal abuse in front of fellow workers. The spokesman blamed mounting pressure on Japanese companies to reduce staffing and pare costs after the employment surge during the bubble economy years of the late 1980s.