Is Highland Council taking bullying and harassment allegations seriously?
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Highland Council appears intent on burying its head in the sand over bullying and harassment after claiming in the face of an overwhelming response from staff that there had been only a handful of reported cases.
At a full council meeting last Thursday, members expressed general satisfaction with a report on how the council would tackle the issue of bullying through revised guidance that lacked detail.
In October 2023, a long-delayed independent staff survey revealed 10 per cent of council employees claimed to have been bullied – indicating as many as 1000 people at the council suffered some form of bullying or harassment.
That prompted an investigation which found numerous cases where people say they have been bullied and/or harassed at work – as per the government's Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service definition.
But the council’s approach by its head of people Elaine Barrie has raised questions about whether it will be effective.
It intends to resolve complaints “informally where possible” while offering the perpetrators of bullying or harassment “similar support” to victims.
The move, agreed by councillors, states that “contacts” will “listen to employees who believe they are being harassed, to clarify the options open to them and to assist them in resolving the matter informally where possible”.
That same "contact" will then “provide similar support to those accused of harassment; and where requested, to support individuals throughout the resolution of their concerns”.
It remains a mystery as to why the draft action plan in response to other findings of the survey did not include methods to tackle the issue of staff mistreatment but they were kept separate.
Ms Barrie’s report continued the theme of doubt about the allegations made in the independent survey, which started last October, as they did not match internal numbers.
She said: “The reported level does not reflect recorded data for the same period of the staff survey with eight cases reported in 2022. Any allegations of bullying and harassment should be reported.
“If the individual is not able to raise it directly with the alleged perpetrator, it can be reported confidentially to the line or senior manager; a council bullying and harassment contact; HR; or trade union.”
It may be problematic because, according to the survey, at least 240 people reported bullying which resulted in just eight cases – the equivalent of just over three per cent. Reporting it to those higher up the chain is not feasible because, according to the survey, managers account for the single largest group of people responsible for bullying and harassment – 35 per cent of cases.
Liberal Democrat group leader Alasdair Christie argued that now is the time to consider a sub-group to address the problem more directly.
He said: “If there is anything in life you can be pretty sure of, that is discrimination, bullying and harassment are the worst things that anyone can probably ever experience.
“And most of us sitting here will probably never have experienced that but some of us here will have. The thing is that there is still a stigma associated with people that have been victimised in some way.
“It is not a surprise to me that the numbers presenting to unions and through official channels citing bullying and harassment are small but on an anonymous survey it comes out larger, that is due to the stigma attached.
“So I would urge the chair of corporate resources to reinstate the equalities sub-group – maybe the name is a bit dated but the purpose was well served.
“But there is a piece of work that needs to be done to find out what the decision is on this and we would be better doing that sooner rather than later.”
