Jo
Anne Brown says that when she was on secondment in New York, a
manager acted unfairly towards her from the day he started. She
claims he persistently criticised her, repeatedly threatened her
with her job and company car, removed staff from reporting to her
and further isolated her by removing her desk and computer and
reallocating her telephone extension whilst she was off sick.
Ms Brown alleges that none of her complaints to senior managers
and human resources were investigated or acted upon properly. In
2001 she says she suffered a breakdown, attempted suicide and
required a two and half month stay in a psychiatric ward for severe
depression.
The case was due to go to court on 5th September; but Ms Brown
says she has been forced to withdraw because after-the-event
insurance that she took out three years ago to cover against losing
her case has been revoked. This left Ms Brown, now 37, potentially
liable for both her own trial costs and BA's should she lose. She
estimates these costs at £40–50k.
A BA spokeswoman told OUT-LAW that the airline had been “ready
to deny all the allegations in court,” but had no further
comment.
Ms Brown said, “To have my insurance revoked is devastating, to
not have my day in court to attempt to hold those I feel
responsible as accountable for their actions is soul-destroying.”
But she continues to campaign against bullying in the
workplace.
She set up bulliedatBritishAirways.com as a support site for
other BA staff. She is also responsible for Just Fight On!, an
anti-bullying community website.
Awareness of bullying in the workplace among employers – and the
consequent risk of litigation – is rising, according to Emma
Grossmith, an employment law specialist with Pinsent Masons, the
law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM. "Employers are not obliged to have a
bullying and harassment policy, but it is good practice to have one
and to train staff to follow it," she said.
Guidance on workplace bullying
Guidance on bullying was published last month by the Chartered
Management Institute (CMI) in association with Acas (the UK
Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) and Unison (the
UK’s biggest trade union).
The guide outlines factors that contribute towards an
organisational bullying culture and urges managers to be clear on
the procedures for dealing with complaints. It also calls on
managers to put preventative ‘anti-bullying’ measures in place.
Signs of bullying include constant criticism, intimidation, and
the blocking of promotion. The guide also recommends the
development of clear and concise policies to tackle it – perhaps
including a statement of commitment from senior management and
examples of unacceptable behaviour.
The guide also outlines what to do if bullying does occur,
emphasising that attention must be focused not only on the
individuals involved, but the culture that allowed the bullying to
take place.
OUT-LAW put the CMI guidelines to Jo Anne Brown. She considered
them to be "a good base"; but she warned that "particular care
needs to be taken with behaviour that is malicious or where
bullying is a repeated pattern for someone."
She said the company culture also has to allow witnesses to come
forward without fear of reprisals.
"The nature of bullying means much of it happens behind closed
doors," she explained. "Where there are witnesses it’s natural that
they don’t risk being the next target so it’s very difficult to get
them to step forward"
She pointed out that there is a much better chance of proving a
grievance and getting action taken when there are witnesses.
“We also need to change what happens when victims do come
forward," she said. "To seriously tackle bullying needs the buy-in
of every employee – be they victim, witness, bully or manager –
because at some point a person may be any one of these."
