A safe, positive, and respectful environment can be the difference between the success and failure of a business. Every employee should be entitled to the right to dignity at work regardless of profession, sector, or status of employment. Not only are employees entitled to this environment, but employers are under a duty of care to ensure that this is upheld. Furthermore, a healthy work environment and good working relationships among staff can lead to improved teamwork and productivity.
What is Dignity and Respect at Work?
Dignity and respect at work are concerned with providing employees with a safe work environment that's free from bullying, harassment, and sexual harassment. Bullying and harassment differ in that bullying is repeated inappropriate behaviour towards somebody whereas harassment is a form of unwanted conduct in relation to any of the discriminatory grounds (age; civil status; disability; family status; gender; membership of the travelling community; race; religion; sexual orientation).
The legal perspective
An employer is vicariously liable if bullying or harassment occurs in the workplace. Therefore, employers can be held responsible for the actions of their employees. In this regard, it is essential for businesses to ensure that they have a robust bullying and harassment policy in place and that employees fully understand the policy.
If an employer fails to deal with instances of bullying and harassment, an employee can take a claim under the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015 and the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. The maximum award for claim under the Equality Act is 2 years’ salary and awards for claims under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act are uncapped.
Case law
As previously mentioned, employers are vicariously liable should bullying and harassment take place. As you can imagine, it is almost impossible to completely eradicate all forms of bullying and harassment in the workplace. This does not mean that it is inevitable that an employer will be found to be liable. When instances occur, the Labour Court will take into consideration what preventative measures the employer had in apace prior to the incident to safeguard the employees from bullying and harassment and also and what action the employer took when they were alerted to the incident.
An interesting case which underlines the importance for employers to have a Dignity and Respect at Work policy is Dublin Bus –v- McCamley (EDA164). In this case, an employee claimed that his employer was liable for discrimination on the grounds of race and religion after a fellow employee had posted disparaging and offensive comments about him on Facebook.
When analysing the case to see if the employer was liable or not, the Labour Court examined if the employer had preventative measures in place and whether they acted accordingly once the complaint was raised. The Labour Court found that the employee had certainly been harassed by his fellow employee but that the employer was not liable due to the fact that:
- They had a Dignity and Respect at Work policy in place (preventative measures);
- They took appropriate action when the complaint was raised under the Dignity and Respect at Work policy (initiated a formal harassment procedure and issued a disciplinary outcome to the offending employee).
Conclusion
The absence of a Dignity and Respect at Work policy will mean that an employer will be unable to prove that they took all preventative measures necessary to avoid any instances of bullying and harassment and therefore leave themselves open to liability. Furthermore, if an employee does not have access to a Dignity and Respect at Work policy, they will not know how they can raise their concerns and may have no other recourse but to approach a third party such as the Workplace Relations Commission.
Similarly, managers and supervisor will not know how to deal with any complaints if they come in if a policy has not been set. Notwithstanding the issues outlined above, a healthy and positive work environment, free from bullying and harassment, can lead to improved teamwork and productivity.
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