One in five council workers discriminated against, harassed or bullied at work, says survey

A number of respondents to Brighton and Hove City Council’s staff survey, seen by The Argus, said there was a bullying culture among some managers within the authority.

Of the 492 instances in the past year, more than three-quarters of victims said they had been bullied, harassed or discriminated against by someone working within the council.

Liam Hackett, chief executive officer of anti-bullying charity Ditch The Label, said: “People have this notion that bullying ends at 16, but it’s just not the case.

Blatant “Whereas bullying in school is quite blatant, bullying in the workplace is a lot more subtle and a lot of the time people don’t even realise they’re being bullied.

“We see this a lot in the workplace, especially when it comes to people in a position of power, and often the victim won’t realise they are being bullied until it’s too late.

“So in actual fact, the figure of 17% is probably a bit higher.”

The report also highlighted that only 25% of staff believed the authority had a clear direction, 38% disagreed or strongly disagreed that they felt valued by the council and only 17% believed meaningful action was taken in their team following the 2013 survey.

Sue Moorman, head of human resources and organisational development at the council, said: “We take any allegation of bullying and discrimination extremely seriously and have a number of appropriate methods in place for staff to report behaviour not in keeping with our values.

“The organisation will respond swiftly and firmly to address it.

“We have good support in place to help employees cope and the staff survey is a vital tool to help.”

Almost all staff who responded to the survey – 97% – believed they were sufficiently equipped to do their jobs effectively, while 94% of workers thought the pressure of their role was manageable.

A total of 87% of respondents to the survey said they have some say over how they carry out their work.