Union Office, British Telecom, Becket House, New Dover Road,
Canterbury, Kent, CT1 3BB
Tel: 01227 760311 Fax: 01227 815929 e-
The Harassment Database
As Equality Officer you will have a role to play in ensuring that complaints are logged onto the harassment database. You must check with the branch that you are following correct CWU branch procedures. The CWU believes that every worker should be treated with dignity and respect. We do not tolerate harassment, bullying
or discrimination, wherever it comes from. We aim to do all we can to ensure our workplaces are free from the misery caused by harassment and that all workers can expect to be treated with dignity and respect.
In law, it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that their workplace is free from harassment. They are responsible for acts of harassment committed by any of their employees. They have to prove that they acted firmly enough against the perpetrators. This means that no matter how good their policies and procedures are
on paper, if they are ignored or the workforce is not made aware of them, then it is the employer who is to blame for acts of harassment committed by its employees.
So where an employee or member needs to make a complaint about the way they are being treated (e.g. bullied or harassed), they must first turn to their company Grievance Procedures, you could assist them here. They may also have to refer to the Bullying and Harassment policy if their company has one.
This is the mechanism to use if you have a complaint about harassment. Your employer must respond to the complaint and resolve the matter fairly. Union members have the right to seek assistance. As Equality Officer you must inform the member of their legal rights to take the complaint to an employment tribunal, if necessary.
As Equality Officer you could go with the member to ask the aggressor to stop, often this is enough to prevent a reoccurrence. Alternatively you could assist the member to write to them.
The information you should help the member to collect is:
i) Dates, times and nature of all incidents.
ii) Talk to others at the member’s place of work discretely
to gather more facts.
iii) Encourage the member to make people aware of their
situation so that they do not feel isolated.
Some members may not wish to talk further to their branch. You can advise them of the CWU Harassment Helpline 0800 107 1909 who are independent of their branch, which they can call direct for advice at anytime. The helpline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and is confidential.
The Helpline will log the complaint and will only pass the information onto the CWU National Equality Department, who will coordinate any necessary action relating to the members wishes.