The ESB is to publish an antibullying policy for its workforce. A conference in Dublin today on workplace bullying will hear an outline of the policy. Management and unions have drawn up the policy together, according to Ms Frieda Murray, the ESB's equal opportunities manager.
The Institute of Personnel and Development has organised today's conference, Beating the Bullies.
Ms Murray said that when the company launched a programme to combat sexual harassment, it found there was a greater problem with general bullying than with sexual harassment.
A joint union-management committee has been considering the issue since 1996 and hoped to be ready to launch its policy early this year, she said.
It would include guidelines for victims of bullying and would list the names of people in the unions and in management to whom victims could bring their complaints. The bullies would be given an informal warning and every effort would be made to resolve the situation before formal procedures were invoked.
"It's all about raising awareness," she said. "We want to make sure it is clearly seen that we don't condone bullying.".
While the issue of workplace bullying had been gaining more recognition in recent years, it could be difficult for managers confronted with bullying to know what to do about it, she said. "Managers, supervisors and trade union officials need guidelines," she said.
"It's not pleasant to have to deal with it but the reality is we have to deal with it. It's best nipped in the bud and that's why we need a policy.".
Ms Carmel Foley, chairwoman of the Employment Equality Agency, who chairs today's conference, told The Irish Times that it had to be asked whether managers who bullied people were themselves being placed under intolerable pressure by their own bosses or boards to achieve impossible targets.
Dr Mona O'Moore of the AntiBullying Research and Resource Unit at Trinity College, Dublin, will also address the conference.