Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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66. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the strategies in place to reduce bullying in the workplace; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62193/25]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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All employees in Ireland are entitled to a safe and stable working environment. Workplace bullying, defined as repeated inappropriate behaviour, direct or indirect, whether verbal, physical or otherwise, threatens that stability. It can undermine employees’ right to dignity at work and can impact their mental and physical health.

Bullying in the workplace is a psychosocial hazard that needs to be managed by an employer like any other work-related health and safety hazard and risk. The role of the Health and Safety Authority(HSA) is to ensure that an employer has appropriate systems and processes in place to manage bullying as a psychosocial hazard, and to ensure an employer’s system of work is not one where bullying is facilitated or tolerated.

In relation to this issue, the HSA has prepared and published, jointly with the Workplace Relations Commission(WRC), a Code of Practice for Employers and Employees on the Prevention and Resolution of Bullying at Work.

This Code provides practical guidance for employers on identifying and preventing bullying at work arising from their duties under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 as regard “managing and conducting work activities in such a way as to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any improper conduct or behaviour likely to put the safety, health and welfare at work of his or her employees at risk”. The Code provides comprehensive guidance for employers on establishing both informal and formal mechanisms to deal with bullying complaints at enterprise level.

The WRC’s overarching role is to achieve harmonious working relations between employers and employees. The WRC encourages local discussion on, and resolution of, disputes and issues which arise in the workplace including cases of alleged bullying. The WRC delivers several services which may assist.

Workplace mediation provides a confidential, professional, efficient and effective process to assist all parties in reaching a mutually acceptable agreement or outcome to a dispute or claim. This approach often helps to avoid more formal processes. It is particularly suited to disputes involving individuals or small groups of workers who find themselves dealing with situations which may involve interpersonal differences, conflicts, difficulties in working together or breakdown in a working relationship.

Following the exhaustion of internal procedures, employees may have access to Adjudication Services under Section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act 1969. It is worth noting that a number of individual bullying grievances have been dealt with through mediation by the WRC Services over the past number of years. The Adjudication Service are independent adjudicators, and they investigate disputes referred to them by individuals or small groups of workers under specific legislation.

The HSA engages with employers through the inspection process to ensure that they have a policy in place regarding the prevention of bullying at work and the processing of bullying complaints. Where an adequate policy on workplace bullying does not exist, an employee can register a complaint with HSA Contact Centre. While the HSA does not get involved in mediating or investigating individual bullying complaints, when a complaint of workplace bullying is received, the HSA uses its statutory powers to ensure that an employer has a suitable workplace bullying policy in place to deal with the complaint and, if necessary, to assess whether or not the employer’s actions in dealing with the complaint were adequate.