Participants in a seminar on bullying at work were told yesterday that they "would be amazed at the amount of workplaces that can only ensure productivity levels by bullying their workers."
Mr Brian Merriman, assistant chief executive officer of the Employment Equality Agency, told the seminar, "Managers who may not tolerate bullying can create a pressurised atmosphere that in turn creates a bully, because they make unreasonable demands on workers and fail to provide adequate resources to meet these demands."
But in addition to harassing their colleagues or subordinates, workplace bullies can cost their employers dear, he told the seminar, "Update on Bullying in the Workplace", held in Dublin and organised by the Institute of Public Administration.
While traditionally awards from the Labour Court have been low in the bullying/harassment areas, "the Employment Appeals Tribunal has recently awarded over £22,000 to the secretary of a managing director who suffered bullying."
Mr Merriman warned managers that they could not ignore complaints of bullying even if the person making the complaint asked them to do nothing about it.
"A very stressed victim will say, `I don't want you to do anything about this.' If something unlawful is brought to your attention and is happening in the workplace, you are obliged to take action.
"Later on, if the victim gains in strength and it comes to the attention of a court that you took no action, that may increase the liability for your employer."
The Employment Equality Act 1998 prohibits bullying but was too narrow, Dr Dan Murphy, director of occupational medical services at the Health and Safety Authority, told the seminar.
The Act bans bullying as a form of discrimination on grounds of sex, marital status, age, religion, race, sexual orientation, family status, disability or membership of the travelling community.
"You have to be within a defined group," said Dr Murphy. "This is the weakness. How do you get down to ordinary harassment?"
Dr Mona O'Moore, who has done pioneering research on workplace bullying in Ireland at Trinity College Dublin, said that "a really rotten workplace" with a "competitive, stressful environment" could bring out the worst in people.
"Some people classified as bullies may only be so because of the culture they are working in."
Bullies "have a veneer of confidence" but underneath they are frustrated and unhappy.
Bullied people who went to personnel departments with their complaints were not always happy with the outcome, according to Dr O'Moore.
"When people go to personnel, personnel somehow see themselves as management and somehow seem to take positions more on the side of management," she said.
If nothing happened, or even if there were reprisals from the bully, the victim saw no point in going back with another complaint. It was important to nip the problem in the bud.
She and other speakers urged organisations to draw up policies on how to deal with bullying, to issue policy statements on the problem and to train staff on how to deal with it.