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In recent weeks there has been much talk in the news about bullying in the workplace, one of the biggest being the three Beefeaters who have now been suspended for terrorising a fellow worker as she got ready for work. The first female Beefeater to work in the Tower of London was subjected to a barrage of abuse which included her £1,400 uniform being defaced, being slandered online and notes being left inside her locker.

Last year there were nearly 290,000 physical assaults and over 390,000 threats to British employees, this resulted in 4 fatal and 928 major injuries which were reported to RIDDOR. Health and Safety says that workplace bullying can be defined as a person that is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances related to work.

There are four main pieces of legislation that cover workplace bullying are:

1. The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSW Act), this act states that an employer has a legal responsibility to ensure the health and safety and welfare of all their employees.
2. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, employers must consider all the risks in their workplace including workplace violence and put in proper controls to help prevent this from happening.
3. The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR), if any person is absent from work for more than three days due to any happenings caused at workplace it must be reported to their enforcing agency, this has to include workplace violence.
4. Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 (a) and The Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996 (b), employers must inform employees in plenty of time of any changes made to their health and safety policies or changes to any personnel that may represent them.

Workplace bullying often leads to other complications such as sickness and stress, again leading to employees to having days off work costing the British economy millions of pounds. Stress is such a problem in the workplace that there is a day dedicated to it, this year National Stress Awareness Day is on the 4th of November.