A union has said spending cuts being imposed in the government’s cost-cutting drive are fuelling bullying in the workplace.
Unison said on top of that, staff are “silenced” and cannot complain about issues at work because they are so afraid of losing their jobs.
One in three workers is being bullied, a Unite poll of 6,000 staff found. Slightly more than a third of the people surveyed said they had suffered bullying within the last six months and 27% said they had seen someone else being bullied.
People who reported bullying said the problems had arisen at the same time as redundancies or a new manager taking the helm. A quarter said their boss had been more hardline since cuts started to bite. Staff said bullying had made them less motivated at work and that they felt angry and stressed.
Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis (pictured) said: “Workers are stuck in a living hell, as they are faced with a double whammy of cuts and bullying. Our results show that bosses are failing to clamp down on workplace bullying and staff are too scared to raise concerns in the current climate of job cuts. There is more pressure than ever from management and the levels of stress are soaring.”
Copyright Press Association 2011
