Opening address by Minister for Labour Affairs Tony Killeen at NIFAST Cork Seminar ‘Preventing Bullying & Stress: Best Practice in the Workplace for 2006’

Monday 10^th April 2006

I am particularly pleased to be associated with this conference given that on 17^th August last, I launched the Report of the Expert Advisory Group on Workplace Bullying.

The principles laid down by the Expert Group in its Report will underpin future consideration of the issue by the Government, as anything less is not acceptable in a fair, safe and equitable workplace. The Group’s report is available free of charge on the Department’s website - www.djei.ie.

These principles are:

• Workplace bullying is unacceptable in all circumstances,
• It is the responsibility of management to ensure that bullying is not tolerated at the workplace, and that,
• Incidents of bullying are adequately dealt with and brought to a fair and conclusive resolution in a timely fashion.

The Group in its Report determined that:

• Workplace bullying is an increasing problem. Whether this is due to an increase in the incidence of bullying or an increasing awareness of the unacceptability of bullying behaviour is not clearly demonstrable. However, the end result is the same – increased numbers of complaints, higher levels of workplace stress, great frustration with a lack of formal channels for resolving such complaints and an increased burden on all parties to resolve disputes.

In order to implement one of the main recommendations of the Expert Advisory Group’s Report, for a follow up survey to be carried out to update the ESRI survey done in 2001, my Department is currently evaluating tenders received. Present indications are that this new study will not be available until about next October.

The 2001 survey showed that 7% of workers had experienced bullying. Even if the percentage remains the same, numerically it is now higher. The updated research will give an up to date picture in this regard.

While the Expert Advisory Group set out a role which they considered for existing State agencies, there was not full agreement within the Group on its recommendations. One example of this is the recommendation that either the Employment Appeals Tribunal or the Labour Court should be the final decision maker on bullying appeals and that the decision of whichever body was given statutory responsibility should be enforceable through the civil courts.

My Department has received the preliminary views of the Social Partners, other interested bodies and some members of the public on the recommendations of the Group.

I have already given a commitment to publish the results of the survey, which will be brought to Government along with the Report and the views of the Social Partners and other interested parties, for decision on how best to implement the Recommendations contained in the Expert Group’s Report. I hope to bring these proposals to Government within as short a timescale as possible.

This conference is also about the prevention of stress in the workplace. I was pleased to have been able to launch the Health and Safety Authority’s Work Positive – Prioritising organisational stress - an initiative aimed at tackling stress in the workplace in July of last year.

Work Positive is a comprehensive risk management tool that incorporates a risk assessment template covering the known causes of workplace stress. It provides a step-by-step guide to assessing risks of stress, outlining the aims of each step and thereby helping managers eliminate these risk factors in their organisation.

Workplaces in the normal course can be stressful but it is when it becomes an issue that has negative effects on the individual, it may become serious. There are risks in all workplaces and it is important that where stress on workers exists it is identified as such, assessed, and a strategy put in place to have it dealt with.

I understand that the Health and Safety Authority is currently assessing the results of the initial implementation programme and calibrating the risk assessment template in advance of its comprehensive rollout of the Programme.

Finally, I wish you success with your conference and your future work in this important area.

ENDS

LA 176