Employers are responsible for preventing bullying and harassment in the work place.

The current definition of harassment - as applied to age, sexual orientation, religion or belief and race and ethnic and national origin is:

'Unwanted conduct that violates people's dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.'

Bullying could be categorised as offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour, an abuse or misuse of power through means intended to undermine, humiliate, denigrate or injure the recipient.

Bullying or harassment may be by an individual against an individual (perhaps by someone in a position of authority such as a manager or supervisor) or involve groups of people. It may be obvious or it may be subtle. Whatever form it takes, it is unwarranted and unwelcome to the individual.

Bullying and harassment are not necessarily face-to-face. They may also occur in written communications (email), phone, and supervision methods, if these are not applied to all workers.

There are a number of options available to an employee who feels they are being subjected to bullying or harassment:

Raise a formal grievance through the employer grievance procedures (written grievance, meeting, right to appeal).