DAWWG meets at Amber Law Offices - Workplace Bullying & The Law
Workplace Bullying sadly but unsurprisingly remains, very much a ‘live’ issue in many places of work and business.
As regards Gibraltar, the issue was not formally addressed until Francis Buttigieg, a target of workplace bullying himself, was courageous and decided that, ‘enough was enough’. Francis started a Charity in 2005, which he appropriately called ‘Dignity At Work Now’ (DAWN). It then took another 9 years’ of lobbying and campaigning until the Gibraltar Government finally drafted laws to protect against workplace bullying in the, ‘Employment (Bullying At Work) Act 2014’.
The Act covers the meaning of bullying, victimisation and harassment; setting out the protection available in law. Helpfully, at its Schedule, it sets out the requirements of all places of work to have a Bullying At Work Policy which must be in writing and distributed to every employee. There is clear guidance on what must be included in the Policy.
As soon as the Employment (Bullying At Work) Act 2014 was commenced, I was instructed to bring the first case thereunder before the Gibraltar Employment Tribunal.
During 2018 and 2019, I was heavily engaged in multiple cases of workplace bullying. Throughout the process I became aware of Surveys that were being conducted by employees as a means to raise awareness and put pressure on employers to take action and comply with the recently enacted legislation.
In 2019, I heard on the local news that there was growing pressure for Her Majesty’s Government to itself introduce its own Policy. Dignity At Work Now had provided a Policy for use but this now pre-dated the Act and therefore an updated version was required.
I am proud to say that I put myself forward as the local Lawyer with the most experience of this new Act, to draft the Policy that would need to be in compliance with the Schedule to the Act. This challenge was made all the more exciting and rewarding as the project was to be a collaborative one.
So I have had the pleasure and honour of leading a collaborative group of highly knowledgeable and experienced, heart-centred people including representatives of: the GGCA Union (for whom I was already engaged on workplace bullying cases), UNITE the Union, the Teachers Union NASUAT, DAWN, Her Majesty’s Government Chief Minister’s Office and Central Human Resources Department and the Gibraltar Police Federation.
The group called Dignity At Work Working Group or ‘DAWWG’, had already made a start when I was engaged. We increased the frequency of meetings and week by week, have been using DAWN’s original Policy document as a template to work from and then add onto in compliance with the Act.
The process has been a rewarding experience. I have learned a lot from all involved. It has been challenging at times and a lot of fun at other times! Particularly at our Christmas Party!
We are now very close to finishing the first draft for submission and approval. We decided to be unique and include guidance on wellbeing tools, create Mediation by Managers, explain the fight, flight, freeze responses and include illustrations too- as they say a picture tells a thousand words’!
I’m very grateful for the instructions and the new friendships forged along the way. I am now very much looking forward to the next action step, approval – and importantly- implementation and training. After all there is no point in producing a Policy without teaching employees and employers how to operate it!