Bullying and harassment in the workplace

Harassment in the workplace, and in particular sexual harassment, has remained a significant issue, despite the application of legislation covering these issues for many years. In addition, there are now moves to regulate inappropriate conduct in the workplace more generally, though efforts to identify such conduct as a form of bullying. The intention of this briefing is to indicate what legal avenues apply to controlling inappropriate workplace conduct, and what are the emerging issues in this area. There are also significant issues regarding corporate and individual liability for such conduct, and there have been a number of important recent developments in this area. Particular attention will be paid to how liability arises in the context, and how employers should manage their response to these issues.