Employment law SOS: Bullying at work

Employers are responsible for preventing any form of workplace bullying and should take such allegations seriously. You should ask the employee involved if he wants to make a formal complaint. If he does, then the company's grievance process should be initiated which will involve fully investigating the allegations, which should include interviewing all the employees involved and looking for other relevant evidence that may support or challenge the allegations. Even if the employee does not want to escalate the matter formally, you should still consider investigating his complaint further. This is not only because accusations of bullying should be taken seriously, but also because it will help avoid any future complaint that management failed to act when bullying was brought to its attention or that it brushes such issues under the carpet. If an investigation does establish that bullying is taking place, you could decide to start disciplinary proceedings for the relevant employees. Of course, given that they deny the accusations, it may not be possible to establish whether bullying has occurred. This will largely depend on whether there is any other evidence available. Regardless of the outcome of any investigation, it will be worth issuing a reminder to staff that bullying and other inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated. You may also want to consider attempting to resolve any ongoing issues among the workforce (for example, through workplace mediation) rather than allow any ill-feeling to fester and potentially cause more problems at a later date.