October 2004

  What Constitutes Workplace Harassment?

…any physical assault, threatening behavior or verbal abuse occurring in the work setting, including but not limited to physical and psychological traumas such as threats, obscene phone calls, an intimidating presence, and harassment of any nature such as being followed, sworn at or shouted at.

(from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health)

A survey by "Campaign Against Workplace Bullying" asked workers who had been the victims of harassment why their harassers picked on them. Here are the top reasons:

1.       Worker refused to be subservient, resisted control.

2.       Harasser envied Worker’s competence in his/her work.

3.       Worker was a whistleblower and was retaliated against.

Not surprisingly most of the harassment was done by people in higher positions at work than the people they picked on.

Signs of Workplace Harassment

§         Screaming/Yelling, public attempts to humiliate, seeking to do battle

§         Witholds resources (time, support, training) so as to prevent you from being successful at your job, undermining, setting you up to fail;

§         Constant, personal verbal assaults on your character, name calling, belittling, zealous attention to unimportant details

§         Manipulates the impression others have of you, splits the work group into taking sides, defames you with higher-ups

Who is Responsible? The employer is responsible to provide a safe work environment. It is the job of the Union to make the employer live up to their responsibility.

Making Employers Live Up to Their Responsibility

Grievances: Create a log and take good notes, recording the situation/task and the specific action the harasser took. If the harasser is a member of management a grievance should be filed. Remember that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health defines workplace violence to include verbal harassment. A grievance can be filed using the "health and safety clause" or the "recognition clause" (the union represents members over all working conditions.) Sometimes the "no discrimination clause" can be used if the harassment is tied to one of the prohibited forms of discrimination.

Additional Steps: If the employer refuses to take the issue seriously, we may want to generate some heat on the issue. We may want to reach out to every 705 Teamster in the workplace to identify the scope of the problem and get support in fixing it. The Union can file a complaint with OSHA. Please note that we must notify the employer of the problem followed by the employer failing to act, before we can go to OSHA.

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