Female workers most at risk from bullies

News | HSW
01.05.2007

Almost one million British employees have suffered workplace bullying or harassment in the last two years, according to new figures from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Women are significantly more at risk than men, and public sector workers report more bullying than their private sector counterparts.

The findings are contained in the DTI's first Fair Treatment at Work Survey, which involved face-to-face interviews with almost 4,000 employees between November 2005 and January 2006.

Altogether, an estimated 2.1 million employees have suffered discrimination, bullying and harassment, sexual harassment or other unfair treatment at work in the last two years. These figures are lower than some previous estimates but the DTI says they are still cause for concern.

While 3.8% of all employees have personally experienced bullying or harassment, women (4.9%) are more likely to be victims than men (2.8%).

More than one in 10 workers (10.6%) with a disability or long-term illness reported feeling bullied and harassed, and women with disabilities are four times more likely to suffer than the national average.

There were no significant differences by age or skin colour, though a higher proportion of foreign-born employees felt bullied than UK-born employees (5% compared with 3.6%).

Supervisors or managers were the bullies in two-thirds of all cases, while a third involved a bullying colleague. Most bullied employees (64%) said they had sought advice; but among black employees, only a quarter had asked for advice. Around one in ten employees (who worked with other people) said that they were aware of another person in their workplace suffering bullying or harassment.

Overall, the public administration and defence sectors have the biggest problem, with the wholesale trade least affected. In line with many other surveys, the proportion of workers being bullied in the public sector is twice as high as in the private sector (5.8% as opposed to 2.7%). This may partly reflect the public sector's employment profile, which includes a higher proportion of women and disabled people.

Across the UK, the highest rate of bullying experienced personally by employees was in England (3.8%), followed by Scotland (3.6%) and Wales (3.1%). Regionally, the highest rate was among workers in the West Midlands (5.8%) and the lowest  in the North West (2.8%).

The DTI said the survey provides an "important baseline against which to gauge progress on equality and discrimination issues in the workplace." It is planning a second fair treatment survey in 2008.