With the recent changes to the Health and Safety at Work Act and the Employment Bill currently before the Select Committee – the world of employment is set for significant change.
Workplace stress and bullying are now identifiable hazards under the Health and Safety at Work Act and as a result, we now have a legal obligation to treat these hazards just as we would an employee falling off a ladder while at work.
We are obligated to investigate and then take all practicable steps to minimize or eliminate the hazard – we can no longer get away with historical well-known scenarios where an employee tells their Manager “Jenny Jones is bullying me but I don’t want you to do anything about it, I just want you to be aware of it” or where people in a team tell new incomers or anyone who comments “Oh don’t mind Jenny, her bark is worse than her bite, she can be a bit rude and abrupt but she gets the job done”.
If the Bill is passed through Select Committee, we will be turning the clocks back in terms of our employment legislation. Proposals included a higher emphasis on ensuring employees take their entitled meal and rest breaks, Unions will once again become far more visible and have more rights, 90 day trial periods will only be available to employers with less than 20 employees and reinstating the employee back into the role they lost will be the primary remedy for unjustified dismissals claims.
In readiness employers should be looking at implementing education and awareness sessions for Managers and employees in relation to maintaining healthy workplaces – effective communication (verbal and non-verbal), dealing with conflict and disagreements, demonstrating respect, defining workplace bullying, harassment and stress, employer and employee obligations, safe practice checklist.
Organisations need to ensure they have up-to-date position descriptions, some form of performance measurements and regular monitoring, clear HR policies and managing poor performance in compliance with the Employment Relations Act, in particular, “genuine opportunity to improve”.
We have an extensive range of services available to partner organisations to ensure they are operating in compliance with relevant employment legislation but most importantly, they are creating an optimum environment for attracting and retaining high talent employees.
