Bully ing in work costs the country €239m per year
WORKPLACE bullying is costing the economy a massive €239million per year, according to a new study.
The report also found that a total of 1.7million days are lost in Ireland on an annual basis due to workplace bullying.
The data, published in the journal Occupational Medicine, finds that although bullying is more prevalent in the public sector, it has a more significant effect on absences in the private sector.
The NUI Galway research team, led by Dr John Cullinan and Dr Margaret Hodgins, estimated the number of workdays lost as a result of workplace bullying and calculated the economic value of the associated loss of productivity.
In a previous study, the research team highlighted the relationship between bullying and work-related stress in the Irish workplace.
The current study builds on this to examine the economic costs of workplace bullying.
It is hoped that the findings could be important for the formation of policy in the workplace.
‘Workplace bullying is a pervasive problem with significant personal and wider costs,’ said Dr Cullinan.
‘Our study highlights the considerable economic cost of workplace bullying in Ireland. In addition to lost productivity from workplace bullying, there are also likely to be costs associated with early retirement and presenteeism.
‘Furthermore, bullying-related costs are unlikely to have gone away as a result of new Covid-19 workfrom-home practices.’
Dr Hodgins noted that to tackle the problem, organisations need an anti-bullying policy in order to signal to staff that bullying is unacceptable.
‘However, a policy is insufficient in itself and it is vital that it is implemented fairly and in a timely fashion,’ Dr Hodgins said.
‘Ideally, organisations should be proactive, identifying how and when bullying occurs in the organisation, and be prepared to develop specific interventions that are appropriate to context.’
In 2014, Ireland was named the seventh worst country in Europe for workplace bullying, and in 2018, a study found that two in five people experienced bullying in their place of work.
The Employment Equality Act places an obligation on all employers to prevent harassment in the workplace.
Under this law, a worker is entitled to bring a claim to the Workplace Relations Commission if they feel they’re being bullied over their gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, age, disability, race, religion, or for being a member of the Travelling community.
The Health and Safety Authority works to ensure that workplace bullying is not tolerated and that employers have procedures for dealing with bullying at work.