Sadly, there has been notable growth in employees suffering harassment or even violence in the workplace.  What can an employer do to protect their staff?  Sonia Bhola outlines the implications.

According to a Eurofound survey undertaken in 2005, five per cent of EU workers had been exposed to violence at work and 75 per cent of incidents had been perpetrated by someone from outside the work place. 

In September 2010, employers' organisations and trade unions across the EU signed up to guidelines to help tackle third-party violence and harassment at work by non-workers such as customers or members of the public.  The agreement covers the health care, education, local and regional government, commerce and private security sectors.

The aims of the guidelines are to ensure that every workplace has a results orientated policy in place to address this increasingly problematic area.  Harassment and violence undermine employees' health and dignity at work and has an economic impact in the workplace due to increased absences, lower morale and increased staff turnover. 

Harassment and violence can:

• be physical, psychological or sexual
• be one-off or more systematic patterns of behaviour
• be among third parties such as clients, customers, patients and pupils; and
• range from minor cases of disrespect to more serious acts, including criminal offences.

The guidelines set out some practical measures for employers, workers and their representatives to reduce, prevent and help mitigate the issues that arise from third-party violence and harassment.  These include:

Raising awareness

The need to raise awareness of the issue amongst employers, employees, service users and other third parties is paramount. The guidelines suggest that this can be done by various methods including providing literature and training.  In particular, they identify the need to train managers and workers about the issues.

Having a policy

The guidelines should be incorporated into health and safety policies and employment procedures, and a health and safety risk assessment should be carried out. The policy framework should include:

• on-going information and consultation with managers, workers and their representatives;
• providing a clear definition of what third party violence and harassment means, including examples;
• providing appropriate information to third parties and informing them that such behaviour will not be tolerated;
• providing on-going and regular training for managers and employees, including how to avoid or manage any conflict that might arise with third parties;
• establishing a procedure which will allow the monitoring and investigation of any allegations;
• providing support for employees that are exposed to third party violence and harassment;
• establishing a requirement to report such incidents to the employer and to other outside agencies such as the police.

Monitoring and reviewing

The guidelines also state that any policy which is introduced should be monitored and kept under regular review so that appropriate changes to the policies and procedures can be made accordingly. 

It is worth remembering that, notwithstanding these guidelines, you have an obligation under health and safety legislation to ensure the health and safety of your workers.  Employees also have a responsibility, as far as possible, to take care of their own health and safety and of others affected by their actions at work in, accordance with any training and instructions you have given. 

Whilst these guidelines were developed for certain industries, it would be good practice to introduce them as part of your general health and safety measures.

You should also note that, the Equality Act 2010, does have provisions which could make you liable for the harassment of your employees if the harassment is related to one of the protected characteristics covered by the Act.  These characteristics include age, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion belief etc. These provisions were meant to come into force on 1 April 2011, however the government have decided not to implement the provisions and are consulting on whether they should be removed as they are seen to be an unworkable requirement for businesses.

Sonia Bhola is a solicitor in Keystone's Employment, Pensions and Incentives Team specialising in all employment law matters. The contents of this article are for the purposes of general awareness only. They do not purport to constitute legal or professional advice, and the law may have changed since this article was published. Readers should not act on the basis of the information included and should take appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances. To find out more, refer to www.keystonelaw.co.uk, call 020 7152 6550 or email enquiries@keystonelaw.co.uk