Three bullying codes overlap and duplicate

HEALTH MATTERS/Harassment: No fewer than three codes of practice on workplace bullying and harassment were recently published on the same day.

One of the codes is under the remit of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), another that of the Labour Relations Commission (it has Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and does not mention the LRC, on its cover), while the third comes under the remit of the Equality Authority.

Mr Tom Kitt TD, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, introducing the codes on March 27th, described them as marking "a balanced and focused strategy to deal with the issue of workplace bullying".

Speaking of the HSA code, Mr Tom Beegan, director general of the HSA said: "Codes of practice are admissible as evidence in court and, as such, this code will have a semi-legal status and will have a major impact on how people can behave at work."

Ms Kate Hayes, chair of the board of the Equality Authority, said of the Equality Authority code: "Significantly the code is admissible in evidence in cases taken on this issue. The Office of the Director of Equality Investigations, the Labour Court or the Circuit Court, in hearing a sexual harassment or harassment case, will look to the code of practice in assessing the practice and approach of the employer in fulfilling their responsibilities under the Act."

The origins of the codes lie in the report of the task force on the prevention of workplace bullying, which highlighted bullying as a legitimate workplace issue, and called for codes of practice to be introduced under the three relevant pieces of primary legislation.

The HSA's Code of Practice on the Prevention of Workplace Bullying was introduced under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 1989.

The code, under the remit of the LRC Code of Practice detailing procedures for addressing bullying in the workplace, was made under the Industrial Relations Act 1990. The Equality Authority's Code of Practice on Guidance on Prevention and Procedures for Dealing With Sexual Harassment and Harassment at Work comes under the Employment Equality Act 1998.

"It's a ridiculous thing. . . It doesn't go beyond the wit of man to devise one code that will be endorsed by the three," said one observer.

Another noted that two of the codes were "overlapping" and "almost identical".

Huge chunks of the HSA's Code of Practice on the Prevention of Workplace Bullying are repeated verbatim in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment's Code of Practice Detailing Procedures for Addressing Bullying in the Workplace.

The need for what Tony Blair called "joined-up thinking" comes to mind when employers are landed with not one code but three.

However, IBEC is not complaining. Indeed, it was involved in drafting the three codes. Mr Peter Flood, assistant director of social policy at IBEC, said: "It had to be done this way".

He said he did not believe it would be confusing, even for employers who employ only a few workers.

Mr Niall Crowley, chief executive of the Equality Authority, said the codes had to "reflect the different legislative contexts".

With three codes, do employers need three policies? Mr Flood said organisations needed only one policy, even though they will need to consult the three codes in drawing it up. A spokesperson for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment confirmed this. "The HSA and LRC codes are very similar. You don't need three policies. You just need one."

One critic commented that the codes had "no teeth".

The HSA's guidelines on preventing workplace bullying state that the HSA "cannot investigate complaints or get involved in individual allegations".

Commenting on the inability of the HSA to investigate complaints, the highly regarded Health & Safety Review, with characteristic understated criticism, noted in its edition published yesterday, April 4th, that "many feel that this approach is inconsistent with the authority's role in investigating workplace accidents.

"If a person falls at work or suffers some other type of accident, the authority will come out and investigate the accident. Why not investigate a bullying complaint?"

The Review adds that it would seem organisations planning a policy to manage bullying prevention "can take a relaxed view, in that they will not be prosecuted for an alleged bullying incident, though of course a prosecution for not addressing the issue in the safety statement (if that be the case) is possible".