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

Thank you for your prompt response. 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

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Wolverhampton City
Council's handling of my FOI request 'Bullying and Harassment'.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/bu...

Yours sincerely

Vicky Gray

Dear Chris Hoskins

Thank you for your reply. However, irrespective of your 'error' you
are in breach of the Freedom of Information Act. Therefore, please
explain the nature of the error which prevented you from responding
to my request and if it appears to me to be reasoable, I will await
your reply within the next twenty days. If not, or if you refuse to
explain, I will submit a complaint to the Information Commissioner.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Vicky Gray

Dear Mr Hoskins

On the 9 February 2009 you contacted me stating "due to an
administrative error, there has been an error processing your
request. We will endeavour to respond as soon as possible". You
also addressed me as Mr Neville...when in fact my name is Ms Gray.
I originally requested the information on the 4 December 2008.

It is now 14 September 2009 what is the excuse this time for not
adhering to the procedures of the Freedom of Information Act? Is it
perhaps because you have meticulously collated the correct
information that I requested?

I look forward to hearing your response to the above issues I have
raised

Yours sincerely

Vicky Gray

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Wolverhampton City
Council's handling of my FOI request 'Bullying and Harassment'.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/bu...

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Gray

Dear Sir or Madam

I am still awaiting a response to my request. The next excuse will
be the Christmas holidays. Please respond to this request.

Yours faithfully

Vicky Gray

Dear FOI

I have made a formal complaint to the leader of the Council as it
is apparent the attitude taken by this office is a blasé do not
respond to correspondence attitude.

Please provide the information I have requested.

Yours sincerely

Vicky Gray

Dear Anne Dokov

Thank you for your response concerning the FOI on bullying and
harassment. I would like to clarify a few points

1) As a council you will have to record sickness absence in a
format to send form HR to Payroll in order for SSP to be calculated
(even for cases where staff still receive full pay) So there will
be some sort or record detailing absence.

2) As a council one would expect you would employ a welfare
officer, who would be advised of all staff absent due to stress,
depression 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.

3) One would assume that a council would have a welfare officer,
who would be advised of all staff absent due to stress/depression,
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.

I will repeat the question I originally asked on the 4 December
2008. "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.".

You failed to answer questions 3-4. No response just a blank.

I will also repeat the questions: 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 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.

Please provide the above information and remember under Section 16
of the Freedom of Information Act you are obliged to assist me with
my enquires I am also emailing the leader of the council as I feel
he has a right to know about the blasé attitude of his staff in
answering Freedom of Information Requests.

Yours sincerely

Vicky Gray

PS Don't say another 20 days and then it's 2011

Dear Rita Rich

I am still awaiting a response to the information I requested in
2008. Please provide the information I requested via this website.

Yours sincerely,

Vicky Gray

Dear Lynne Kitson

Thank you for your response concerning the FOI on bullying and
harassment. I would like to clarify a few points.

Under YOUR duty to provide advice or assistance (Section 16), YOU
should make suggestions as to how YOU could help ME get the
information I want if YOU are claiming it would cost too much.

1) As a council you will have to record sickness absence in a
format to send form HR to Payroll in order for SSP to be calculated
(even for cases where staff still receive full pay) So there will
be some sort or record detailing absence.

2) As a council one would expect you would employ 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
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.

3) 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.

4) Your mention of the data being "Sensitive Personal Data Under
the Data Protection Act is irrelevant. I am asking for information
regarding ailment and staff numbers not personally identifiable
information.

8) Your suggestion that to search through the files over four years
is slightly puzzling as one would imagine each file would have a
section dealing with sickness absence. 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. 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 been off sick in
the period I have requested and then look at these files.

I suggest you carry out your review again or is bullying so endemic
throughout the council you are trying to hide the figures? As I am
sure you don't want the public to feel that you are covering up
bullying at the taxpayers expense?

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

Yours faithfully

Vicky Gray

Dear Wolverhampton City Council

I will not waste any more of my valuable time by complaining to the
Information Commissioner from whose office you have no doubt been
advised how best to refuse to comply.

The taxpayer of Wolverhampton will be funding the bullying
behaviour of management. With an an additional tax for paying for
cover for absent staff due to depression/stress bought on by
bullying.

Stress is not the employee's inability to cope with excessive
workload or the unwelcome attentions of bullying co-workers and
managers; stress is a consequence of the employer's failure to
provide a safe system of work as required by the UK Health and
Safety at Work Act 1974.

Yours sincerely

Vicky Gray