Bullying and Harassment

Dear Sir/Madam

I would like to know how many employees of the city council have
been absent from work due to either stress, anxiety, depression or
any combination of those ailments between 1st August 2004 and 31st
October 2008.

Please also confirm how many complaints of bullying have been made
by employees of the council against managers or colleagues during
the same period.

Please confirm how many employees have claimed constructive
dismissal within the same period for bullying/harassment.

Please confirm how many claims have been filed against the city
council at the Employment Tribunal within the same period for
bullying/harassment.

I would ask that you remember the statutory duty imposed upon
public authorities by virtue of Section 16 of the Freedom of
Information Act to provide advice and assistance to requesters. If
for any reason you are leaning toward rejecting any part of this
request or if you plan to argue that it is unmanageable or
unanswerable in any way then I would expect you to contact me
promptly to find ways to answer this request to our mutual
satisfaction.

Yours sincerely

Vicky Gray

Dear Sir or Madam

I would also clarify when I mentioned constructive dismissal, I was
referring to the employee directly, similar point about bullying
and harassment complaints, there is no Employment Tribunal claim
called "bullying and harassment". This will usually form part of a
claim for unfair dismissal or one (or more) of the various
discrimination claim and/or under the Protection from Harassment
Act. Could you provide the information on the aforementioned.

Could you provide the information in electronic format via this
website.

Thank you for your full co-operation

Yours Sincerely

Vicky Gray

Dear Sir or Madam

You have not replied to my FOI request within the 20 working days
you are allowed by law.

Kindly address yourselves to this matter immediately and explain
your lack of response.

Yours sincerely

Vicky Gray

Dear Tosh, David

Schools are public authorities in their own right and have their
own publication schemes under FOI. Also, school staff are employees
of the governing body, not the local authority. Even if a school
buys into the Service Level Agreement for HR or Payroll from the
local authority, legally and contractually, staff are not council
employees. The questions I have asked never included Schools, so
therefore the figures that have been provided will be incorrect.
Please provide the information excluding School Staff.

The response provided has no relation to the information I asked
for. I didn't ask if they had a system for recording statistical
information, I asked for the figures. They have not denied that any
complaints were made nor have they cited any exemptions against
disclosing the data. The fact that they do not have a system for
recording them is meaningless. They have a duty under FOI to
confirm or deny if the information is held, then to determine if it
is exempt from disclosure and if it is not, they must disclose it.

If the files are manual files held in what the Data Protection Act
refers to as a "Manual relevant structured filing system," one
would expect it would take at most a minute to extract a file from
a cabinet, open it, turn up the sickness tab and glance at the
sheet and scribble a note if the file refers to
stress/depression/and put it back again. The "relevant cost limit"
from Section 12 is £450 or two and a half days work.If you ran a
query on a database,you could identify all the relevant information
I have requested and then look at these files. So cost should not
be an issue.

I pointed out to the council there is no constructive dismissal, I
was referring to the employee directly, similar point about
bullying and harassment complaints, there is no Employment Tribunal
claim called "bullying and harassment". This will usually form part
of a claim for unfair dismissal or one (or more) of the various
discrimination claim and/or under the Protection from Harassment
Act. The council answered this question referring to bullying which
would not provide the correct information.

On the basis of the foregoing, I would ask that a review be carried
out and that I be advised of the outcome of that review within the
timescales deemed appropriate in the Information Commissioner’s
recent guidance.

I would ask that you remember the statutory duty imposed upon
public authorities by virtue of Section 16 of the Freedom of
Information Act to provide advice and assistance to requesters.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Vicky Gray

Dear Mr Tosh

Thank you for your response. I understood that community schools
with delegated budgets were public authorities in their own right –
they certainly are in England and staff of such schools are issued
with contracts of employment by the governing bodies of those
schools thereby making them employees of the governing body (i.e.
appointed by and able to be dismissed by the governing body not
anyone else). If this is not the case in Wales, then I certainly
was not aware of that fact which is why I made that point in my
previous response.

With regard to your request for clarification of points three and
four of my original request, please take point three to read
“Please confirm how many employees have claimed constructive
dismissal within the same period citing bullying or harassment as a
cause or contributing factor.”

Likewise for point four “Please confirm how many claims have been
filed against the city council at the Employment Tribunal within
the same period citing bullying or harassment as a cause or
contributing factor within the claim.

I hope that this helps clarify my request, but please do not
hesitate to contact me again if you need any further clarification.

Yours sincerely

Vicky Gray

Dear David

Thank you for your full co-operation and for keeping informed of
your progress.

Kindest Regards

Vicky Gray

Dear Mr Evan

Thank you for your response. I would raise the following points
with you:

As a council one would expect you would employ a welfare officer,
who would be advised of all staff those had said they were being
bullied, it would be part of your duty of care under both the
Health & Safety At Work Act 1974 and also under most contracts of
employment. Details would have to be passed to that person or an
appointed person in HR. One would assume that a council would have
a welfare officer, who would be advised of all staff absent due to
stress or those who had said they were being bullied, it would be
part of their duty of care under both the Health & Safety At Work
Act 1974 and also under most contracts of employment. So details
would have to be passed to that person or an appointed person in
HR.

Your suggestion that to search through the files over four years is
slightly confusing as one would imagine each file would have a
section dealing with Bullying/Grievances/Harassment. If the files
are manual files held in what the Data Protection Act refers to as
a "Manual relevant structured filing system," one would expect it
would take at most a minute to extract a file from a cabinet, open
it, turn up the sickness tab and glance at the sheet and scribble a
note if the file refers to Bullying/Grievances/Harassment and put
it back again. The "relevant cost limit" from Section 12 is £450 or
two and a half days work. By those figures, one would expect you to
be able to review 1000 files in that time. If you ran a query on
your database, you could identify all employees who had submitted
Grievances/Bullying/ Harassment in the period I have requested and
then look at these files.

Therefore, if the information exists, you are required to disclose
it unless an exemption applies. I am mindful that you have cited
the ‘costs’ exemption, yet section 16 of the FOIA imposes upon you
a duty to provide advice and assistance. Yet you have not done so.
You have done nothing to assist me in seeking to find a way that
would help me obtain the information I am requesting.

Therefore the only conclusion I can draw is that you are
purposefully seeking to conceal the number of cases of bullying
within your organisation.

I do not accept that you have made an adequate case for refusing to
supply me with the information and can only conclude that because
of the clearly appalling record of appropriately dealing with the
bullying that appears to be endemic within the council that you are
seeking to avoid further embarrassment by refusing to supply
detailed figures.

The internal review should be an independent, impartial review
based on the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act and
associated case law. It is not an emotive proceeding where personal
views or opinions on the requester are to be given any weight. It
should be fair and objective and should there be any suggestion of
anything to the contrary, be assured the matter will be taken
before the Information Commissioner and if necessary the
Information Tribunal.

I would remind you that by law you have a legal obligation to
respond truthfully.

Thank you for your full co-operation

Yours sincerely

Vicky Gray

Dear Mr Evans

Thank you for providing the correct information.

Yours sincerely

Vicky Gray