27/10/2006 - New campaign backs dignity and respect in the workplace

Cumbria County Council is launching a new campaign on acceptable behaviour in the workplace. It aims to ensure that all employees, councillors and members of the public understand that Cumbria County Council expects its employees and customers to be treated with dignity and respect.

The campaign is called “Have you crossed the line?” and will be launched on 7th November - which is National Ban Bullying at Work day. It will challenge people to think about what is and isn’t acceptable in the workplace as well as highlighting the processes and support available for incidents of bullying and harassment.

The first phase of the campaign features a briefing pack for team meetings designed to encourage employees to identify behaviours which do or don't ‘cross the line’. They will be invited to discuss a series of workplace scenarios before deciding which side of the ‘line’ they fall - acceptable or unacceptable.

Cumbria County Council is taking a zero tolerance approach to bullying and harassment and has been working closely with the training consultancy Equality Works since 2005 to ensure that equality and diversity issues are well integrated into the council.

Equality Works has just produced a report commissioned by the county council which examines how successful the council has been so far in its culture change to remove bullying and harassment from the workplace.

In a staff survey conducted in 2005, the council asked its employees about their experience of bullying and harassment. Despite showing that the majority of people enjoy working for the county council, the survey did reveal that 15% of employees had experienced bullying and harassment in the previous 12 months - only 48% of these people reported it and, of them, only 28% were happy with the outcome.

The new Equality Works report, which will be presented to Cabinet on 7th November, examines the issue in more detail. It combines data from 1,172 responses to a February 2006 staff survey ‘What’s it like working here?’ with analysis of 22 in-depth interviews with people who said they had experienced bullying or harassment in the council. The report was compiled between March and August 2006.

The new report also found high levels of job satisfaction and that the vast majority of people (87%) found the council an enjoyable and fair place to work. However, 6% of respondents described the culture as ‘bullying’, 5% ‘discriminatory’ and 2% ‘offensive’. There were issues with the management style in some areas of the council, with 11% describing the culture as ‘controlling’ and 10% as ‘blaming’.

The report also reveals the following types of behaviour experienced by some employees:

Not being given information others have

Being given work not able to do/without support

Been shouted at

Been criticised in public

Been sworn at

Unwelcome jokes about me

Remarks about age

Excluded from social events

Unwelcome remarks about gender

Inappropriate touching

Unwelcome remarks about sexuality

Unwelcome remarks about race/ethnicity

Remarks about religion

Unwelcome remarks about disability

Awareness of the county’s bullying and harassment policy was relatively high (84%), though much lower for frontline workers, who were most likely to experience bullying and harassment.

Elizabeth Mallinson, cabinet member responsible for organisational development, said: “Everyone has the right to dignity and respect in the workplace. The county council has been brave enough to look in detail at an issue that many employers try and sweep under the carpet. It’s only by examining if there’s a problem, and what that problem is, that you can change for the better. 

“It’s a culture change that runs right through the organisation from top to bottom. The proof of that is that now any employee can feed back directly to the chief executive, anonymously if they wish, on any area,” she said.

“We’re also strengthening areas where we’ve been weak in the past. Employees haven’t had much confidence in the process on bullying and harassment, so we’ll be recruiting and training more investigating and support officers over the next year. This new campaign is just the start of a major programme which will raise awareness of the issue,” said Councillor Mallinson.

ENDS

Notes for Editors

1,600 county council staff have been trained on equality and diversity issues since 2005.

Media enquiries to Gareth Cosslett, News Manager on 01228 606332