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Press release: Response to House of Lord's judgement that an employer can be sued over harassment by an employee

14 Jul 2006

Julian Topping, head of workplace health and employment at NHS Employers, said:
 
'This landmark judgement that employers can be held responsible for bullying by their staff has far-reaching implications for the NHS, as the largest employer in the UK.  Although trusts already have well established routes by which employees can raise concerns, this ruling makes it even more important that employers do not tolerate any form of bullying or harassment. 

We are already working with trusts to help them identify bullying behaviour and to prevent it with clear zero tolerance bullying and harassment statements and frameworks for dealing with incidents among their staff.  We know from the recent staff survey that there is still a lot more that needs to be done to address this problem but trusts are determined to tackle it head on.'

Notes for editors

Further information on the work of NHS Employers can be found at www.nhsemployers.org

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• Gemma Jeffcoate
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