We say there has to be legal recourse when a manager or co-worker subjects an employee to an abusive work environment", we define "abusive conduct" as "conduct of an employer or employee in the workplace, with malice, that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive, and unrelated to an employer's legitimate business interests."

Bullies at work show no mercy, so we want Bullying in the Workplace to be made into a criminal offence, where serious bullying results in the perpetrator/s going to prison for up to 10 years.

Despite the recent Equality Act 2010 outlawing harassment on the grounds of sex, race, sexuality, disability etc harassment and workplace bullying, which is status-blind harassment, is still prevalent. It is up to us targets of abuse to stop it – and WE WILL.

It wasn’t until Race and Sex Discrimination at work were outlawed that such practices were greatly curbed, we feel that bullying would diminish substantially if it was made a crime.

SUPPORT FOR TARGETS
We aim to help the targets of workplace bullying by giving them support and advice about their rights, by giving targets the chance to voice their concerns and we help to get bullying stopped. We suggest bullied targets contact us if they require any help (contact details below). Many victims of bullying are traumatised, sometimes for life, and some commit suicide (bullycide).

BULLIED TARGETS COME TOGETHER
We believe that everyone in the workplace irrespective of their status deserves to be treated with dignity and respect at all times. Employees’ rights should be protected at all times and they need to be aware of their rights.

So we are encouraging workers to come forward and say they are being bullied and that they want bullying outlawed – in this way we can bring bullied targets together so that we know we are not alone when we are being bullied.

NAMING AND SHAMING THE BULLIES
We are urging victims of bullying to go public and name the organisations where they were bullied and the names of the bullies. Our website will print the names of the bullies and we will publish any photographs of the bullies so that people in the street will know what the bully looks like.

Bullying Drags Employees and the Economy Down

We understand that more than 3 million people at work consider themselves as being bullied, 25% of people report that they have been bullied in the last 5 years and 18.9 million working days are lost every year as a direct result of workplace bullying, losing £4billion to industry as victims take time off work. (Statistics from the Andrea Adams Trust Appeal).

We know that bullying in the workplace lowers employees’ morale and can cause stress and sickness, which costs the UK economy, directly and indirectly, up to £30billion per year.

We want politicians to recognise that the violations of employees’ rights has a negative effect on society and it is the suffering caused to the targets of bullying we want stopped.

Bullying at work has to stop and, as with Race Discrimination and Sex Discrimination, it will be stopped when the law forbids it.

The Nature of Workplace Bullying

To describe just what bullying is here is a short piece by Tim Field – pioneer of anti-bullying campaigning.

“Bullying is the common denominator of harassment, discrimination, prejudice, abuse, persecution, conflict and violence. When the bullying has a focus (eg race or gender) it is expressed as racial prejudice or harassment, or sexual discrimination and harassment, and so on. Although bullying often lacks a focus, bullies are deeply prejudiced but at the same time sufficiently devious to not reveal their prejudices to the extent that they contravene laws on harassment and discrimination.

I believe bullying is the single most important social issue of today, for the study of bullying provides an opportunity to understand the behaviours which underlie almost all conflict and violence”. Source:  http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/index.htm

BULLYING OUTLAWED ALREADY IN AUSTRALIA

The law in the UK is weak when it comes to protecting employees from the bullies in the workplace.
Employment Tribunals cannot act in favour of a bullied target because in the UK it is still legal to bully in the workplace.

Whereas in Australia bullying at work is now a crime, thanks to “Brodies Law” a serious bully can face up to ten years in prison. The existence of this legislation has sent shock waves throughout Australian workplaces – the hope is that this law will spread throughout the country –
“The workplace bullying laws were passed in Victoria in June and Ms Panlock’s parents, Damian and Rae, said at the time they wanted to see federal laws to make the offence punishable by up to 10 years' jail in any state”. Herald Sun Michelle Ainsworth August 30, 2011 -  http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/push-to-make-brodies-law-national/story-fn7x8me2-1226125127902

NOW IS THE TIME FOR COMMON SENSE IN THE UK

Workplace bullying involves degrading, belittling, humiliating and threatening behaviour; in some cases it spills over into violence. It is devastating for victims and their families and has an immense economic impact. Therefore it makes sense for our MPs to make bullying a crime and we will not rest until that happens.