The Anti-Bullying Union

The Anti-Bullying Union, is a union of bullied employees dedicated to stop the bullies from making our lives a complete misery. TABU is a nationwide union where the members’ only qualification to join is that they are or have been a target of bullying. We are asking for ZERO Tolerance of bullying at work and lobby and campaign on behalf of targets of bullying.

Introduction
For targets of bullying at work there is very little or no protection from the bully – usually a manager or supervisor. Apart from looking up the few anti-bullying websites, speaking to a solicitor/ counsellor or the Human Resources Manager there is next to no help or support for a bullied employee.
Bully targets often feel isolated thinking they are the only one being bullied and this undermines their self-confidence and self-esteem. When the most conservative estimate of bullying incidents at work is put at 3,000,000 every day you can understand the seriousness and widespread nature of bullying. Targets live in misery and pain, often depressed and occasionally some commit suicide. Why? Because some bully type individual can gain a perverse form of gratification from bullying. Until now, that is, for The Anti-Bullying Union aims to STOP THE BULLY!

Bringing Bully Targets Together
TABU is a new kind of union, which brings together targets of bullying of all kinds: – teachers, office workers, charity workers, postal workers, factory workers etc to create strength in numbers to help ourselves and other targets of bullying. We believe, that together, we can stop the bullying at work.

WHAT IS BULLYING?
People who are bullied find that they are:
constantly criticised, (destructive criticism), ridiculed, overruled, dismissed or ignored, nit-picked, trivial fault-finding, overruled, ignored, sidelined, marginalised, ostracised undermined in front of others; isolated and excluded from what's happening
false concerns raised, doubts over a person's performance
singled out and treated differently
belittled, degraded, demeaned, ridiculed, patronised, subject to disparaging remarks
target of offensive or bad language, personal remarks,
target of unwanted sexual behaviour
threatened, shouted at and humiliated, especially in public
taunted and teased to embarrass and humiliate
set unrealistic goals and unachievable deadlines
denied information or knowledge necessary for undertaking work and achieving objectives
denied support by their manager and thus find themselves working in a management vacuum

either overloaded with work or have all their work taken away replaced with menial jobs
subject to excessive monitoring, supervision, micro-management, recording, snooping etc
the subject of written complaints by other members of staff (most of whom have been coerced into fabricating allegations - the complaints are trivial, often bizarre ["He looked at me in a funny way"]
forced to work long hours, under threat of dismissal
denied annual leave, sickness leave, or - especially - compassionate leave
when on leave, are harassed by calls at home or on holiday, often at unsocial hours
do not have a clear job description, or have one that is exceedingly long or vague; the bully often deliberately makes the person's role unclear
invited to "informal" meetings which turn out to be disciplinaries
denied representation at meetings
encouraged to feel guilty, and believe they're the one at fault
subjected to unwarranted and unjustified verbal or written warnings
facing unjustified disciplinary action on trivial or false charges
facing dismissal on fabricated charges or flimsy excuses, often about incidents months or years old
coerced into reluctant resignation, enforced redundancy, early or ill-health retirement
denial of the right to earn your livelihood including preventing you getting another job, usually with a bad or misleading reference

WHY DO WE NEED TABU?
Bullying at work is a source of misery and stress for employees and TABU is a safety net for them. Targets of abuse are disadvantaged, because the resulting stress or illness caused diminishes their ability to function as a full member of the community. Often targets of bullying commit suicide and many are traumatised, sometimes for life. Targets of bullying at work whether by managers or colleagues need a support system to help them overcome the effects of bullying and look for ways of stopping it (including going to law).

Abuse and harassment adversely affects the National Economy, for example, bullying at work affects over 3,000,000 working people (Institute of Personnel and Development) the TUC, HSE and CBI estimate the cost of stress-related illnesses to the national economy is £12billion every year and the National Anti-Bullying Help-line reckon the figure to be £32,billion. Obviously, this is a cost to every local economy.

TABU is a vital stepping-stone for abused people going from almost accepting bullying and other abuse as being inevitable to becoming self-empowered to take action. At present, there is no specialist union / agency that deals only with bullying and abuse of employees. The existing bodies like Mediation Services, Law Centre etc, do a good job, but because targets often suffer low self-esteem through bullying they don’t have enough self-confidence to approach them. Because TABU is a support service it will be able to encourage targets of abuse to come forward and eventually go to the authorities or lawyers.

It is hoped that people will become self-empowered and set up community based support groups, through gaining knowledge of their rights and the procedures needed to overcome bullying and abuse, and this should alleviate the strain on existing agencies.

ZERO TOLERANCE FOR BULLYING AT WORK
We say that bullying at work is unnecessary, harmful, lowers morale, and demotivates employees; therefore workplaces need to adopt Zero Tolerance towards bullying at work. We believe that some bullies need to accept blame as they are often ‘sociopaths’ who take escaping blame as a kind of ‘victory’ over their bully targets and the bully carries on bullying. If bullies can avoid blame and the methods used to curb their behaviour is seen as ‘soft’ by the bully, then we are wasting our time in trying to stop them.
A Zero Tolerance attitude towards bullying gives the bully a clear and loud message that says we won’t tolerate your behaviour and you have to stop – NOW or take the consequences.

WHAT WE ARE ABOUT
TABU is a community based advice, support service, information provider for people suffering bullying, harassment or other rights abuses in the workplace and campaign for better rights, democracy and an absence of bullying at work.

The project is a first port of call for, harassed, abused and bullied people and uses a sympathetic approach to targets of abuse. It will be unique in that, although Citizens Advice, Law Centres, ACAS, lawyers etc cover some aspects of bullying TABU can give more specialist and better focused support to overcome the results of abuse.

With regard to employees’ rights, we rely on current legislation such as the Human Rights Act 1998, Protection From Harassment Act, Health and Safety at Work laws, Employment Acts, anti-discrimination law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 and campaign for further improvements in the law where necessary and enhanced democracy in the workplace.

Golden Rule: Treat others as you wish to be treated.

USEFUL CONTACTS AND RESOURCES

STRESSED? FEELING ILL?

Here is a useful book to help you understand why you are feeling the way you do.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: the invisible injury, 2005 edition. By David Kinchin ISBN 0952912147.

Bully Online - www.bullyoffline.org And Success Unlimited:
Andrea Adams Trust: The first charity in the world dedicated to tackling workplace bullying
Hova House, 1 Hova Villas, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 3DH
T: 01273 704 900 Charity number: 1064539
Website: www.andreaadamstrust.org


FREEDOM TO CARE - The UK's first whistleblower support group (1991) Promoting the expression of social conscience in the workplace, public accountability, ethics at work and supporting whistleblowers and whistleblowing. Providing free information on professional ethics, bullying at work, corporate responsibility, social and ethical accounting and auditing - especially in health care, nursing, social work, police, financial services, government, education, science and environmental protection.

Inquiries and donations: FtC, c/o Porter-Williams, Greenhaven, Halfway Lane, Dunchurch, Rugby, CV22 6RD, United Kingdom.
Email:  freedomtocare@aol.com

"It is time to speak your truth. Create your community. Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for the leader." Hopi Indian

Just Fight On! Against workplace bullying and abuse
Crossbow Centre, 40 Liverpool Road, Slough, SL1 4QZ Telephone 01753 610536 [office only] Email:  info@jfo.org.uk
Workplace Bullying Website - www.workplacebullying.co.uk
SAMARITANS Chris, P.O. Box 9090, Stirling, FK8 2SA Phone: 08457 90 90 90, Email  jo@samaritans.org
Toxic Boss -  louise@toxicboss.com
NINEVEH - Anti-bullying Internet Support Group
antibullyingcrusador.wordpress.com

TELL US ABOUT YOUR SITUATION
REMEMBER this newsletter is for anyone who has been bullied and wants to share their experiences with other targets of workplace bullying and people generally.
If you want to give advice or support to others or want to help produce this newsletter or wamt to join TABU please contact us at the address below.

WE WILL STOP THE BULLYING
If enough people join The Anti-Bullying Union we will increase our clout and influence and be able to help more targets of bullying. Together we can make a difference – apart we can only make small dents in the bully’s armour. Join NOW!