MINISTER KITT ANNOUNCES PLANS TO COMBAT WORKPLACE BULLYING

Wednesday 28 July 1999

From Ireland:

Mr Tom Kitt, T.D., Irish Minister for Labour Affairs, to-day (Wednesday 28th July, 1999) announced a new initiative to combat workplace bullying.

As a vital step Minister Kitt is establishing a Task Force on the Prevention of Workplace Bullying, which will be chaired by Dr. Eileen Doyle and will operate under the auspices of the Health and Safety Authority. Minister Kitt said that the Task Force will focus on identifying the size of the problem and the employment sectors most at risk, in addition to developing proposals for practical programmes and strategies both to prevent workplace bullying and to provide appropriate responses from the State Agencies. The group will report back in March next year.

Minister Kitt said that "in the last ten years the definition and perception of workplace health and safety has broadened considerably, and work practices and expectations have also changed enormously. Health and safety has become a legitimate business issue and a fuller picture of the most pertinent physical, medical and psychological workplace health and safety issues is now available. Stress, violence and bullying in the workplace are as detrimental to the safety, health and welfare of a worker as any physical hazard and must be tackled." he said.

Last October, at Minister Kitt's request, the Health and Safety Authority published an awareness-raising booklet on bullying in the workplace. Following its publication a significant number of letters and calls were received by his office outlining, starkly, details of individual cases of bullying. "Clearly, bullying can have devastating long-term consequences for an individual which can adversely affect both his or her working and personal life. Indeed, any attempt to complain often exacerbated the situation for the victims." said the Minister.

The Health and Safety Authority will undertake a countrywide publicity and awareness-raising campaign in conjunction with the deliberations of the Task Force.

Minister Kitt has invited the following bodies to participate on this Task Force:

ICTU
IBEC
The Health and Safety Authority
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform
The Employment Appeals Tribunal
The Labour Court
The Labour Relations Commission
The Rights Commissioner Service
The Employment Equality Agency

In addition, the Task Force itself will accept submissions and presentations from any interested group or individual to help it gain as broad a picture as possible of the situation.

Minister Kitt concluded that "every worker has a right to a safe and healthy work environment in both physical and psychological terms. Where this is absent the quality of their work would inevitably suffer. Employers have good economic reasons for opposing bullying, in addition to their moral and legal obligations in this area."

- ENDS-

LT207

For further information contact Dr Dan Murphy or Mr David Denny at the Health and Safety Authority, 10 Hogan Place, Dublin 2. Tel 01 - 6147000.

Note for Editors

1. Dr Eileen Doyle studied teacher training at Carysfort College, Dublin.
Her other academic qualifications include a Higher Diploma in Education from University College Dublin; an MA., (Hons.) in History from University College Dublin; a M.Ed., (Hons.) in Management in Education from Trinity College Dublin; and a PhD., in Education Management from Trinity College Dublin.

Dr Doyle is a former vice-chair of the Curriculum and Examinations Board (CEB) and of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and two Primary review bodies - the Primary Education Review Body and the Primary Review Body.

Dr Doyle currently works as an Outsource Consultant and Trainer for a variety of education and training institutions and businesses. She also lectures part-time in Education Management and Leadership at Trinity College Dublin and has a growing practice in the Adult Education field on the subject matter of Guidance and Counselling.

2 The Health and Safety Authority has published a short leaflet Bullying at Work text of bullying leaflet available on-line at http://www.HSA.ie/osh/bullying.htm

3 The forms bullying can take range from actual physical contact to the more common verbal abuse or offensive language, unfunny cartoons or simply exclusion from social activities. Often the most insidious forms of bullying can arise from the abuse of authority by bosses giving impossible deadlines or impossible tasks or the repeated unreasonable assignment to duties, which are obviously unfavourable to one individual.

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