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Health and Safety Authority gets almost 200 workplace bullying complaints in four years

Health and Safety Authority gets almost 200 workplace bullying complaints in four years

Nearly 200 complaints of workplace bullying have been made to the Health and Safety Authority over the past four years.

A total of 37 have been made so far this year.

The majority of complaints of workplace bullying are made to employers, but they can also be made to the HSA.

It considers the matter a health and safety issue, which can be hazardous and dangerous.

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Details released under the Freedom of Information Act show 189 complaints of workplace bullying have been made to the HSA since 2016, including 41 last year and 37 so far this year.

Angela Mazzone from the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre in DCU said people who witness this type of behaviour also have a key role to play in addressing it.

Ms Mazzone said: "Bullying is a very complex phenomenon, so when addressing this phenomenon we need to target the individuals and the organisation.

"When we think about workplace bullying, we just focus on the target and on the perpetrator.

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"But actually when bullying happens, there are other people who might witness, for instance, an episode of verbal abuse"

Separately, there have also been 39 complaints of workplace bullying within the gardaí in the same time frame.

There were also two reports of workplace sexual harassment within the force last year, both of which were forwarded for investigation.

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