Independent British surveys estimate that around one in five employees fall victim to bullying or harassment. Trinity College's Anti-Bullying Research Centre found that more than 40 per cent of the employees it surveyed, claimed to have suffered at the hands of others. That is, they were victimised at work, with about one-third of the group reporting that they were, or continued to be, frequently bullied.

The unit's findings also show that bullying and harassment are a real source of illness, attempted suicide, high absenteeism, poor staff morale, high staff turnover, poor productivity and litigation.

The employee categories which appear to be particularly vulnerable include those which are subject to discretionary bonus payments and probationers. Significantly, it has also been established that most of the "culprits" tend to be male, and senior in the organisational hierarchy relative to their victims.

In 1996, Mr Tom Kitt, the Minister of State for Labour, appointed a Task Force on the Prevention of Workplace Bullying. This established that about 7 per cent of employees had been bullied in the last six months - with the public sector harbouring more than its fair share of aggressors. Some 81 per cent of the bullying reported took the form of verbal abuse.

Harassment or bullying covers a wide range of undesirable activities. The employers' group, IBEC, acknowledges that it may be as blatant as shouting at staff, or "persistently setting objectives with unreasonable or impossible deadlines". Dr Mona O'Moore of the Anti-Bullying Centre describes the practice as: "Constantly feeling there is someone on your back and you can't shake them off".

Attempts to define the behaviour would do well to note that only last year a British Tribunal held - in a sexual harassment case - that it was the recipient who decided what was acceptable or offensive carryon. It is not a court or tribunal's prerogative to decide to dismiss a complaint should it happen to have a different interpretation to the victim of what actually constitutes "acceptable behaviour".

Trinity College's Anti-Bullying Research Centre, which was established in 1996 to carry out work in the field, also attempts to meet the need for guidance, advice and information on bullying behaviour.

Recent research at Trinity detected that bullies are usually promoted in their jobs, thus filtering the undesirable behaviour further up through the organisation.

The topic first came to public attention here in 1984 when a 15-year-old female petrol station attendant successfully took a claim for constructive dismissal against her employer on the grounds of sexual harassment. This was the first such occasion that harassment at the workplace was explicitly prohibited by Irish law.

Four years later, in 1988, the Labour Court investigated a case which took place at a residential company training course off-site.

In this case the court determined that sexual harassment which occurred outside the workplace - but might well have repercussions for the employee in her work environment - was unacceptable.

Under the Employment Equality Act, 1998, employers are obliged to take all reasonable steps to ensure a harassment-free workplace. It has been firmly established in case law that when an employee suffers continual and unchecked bullying, a claim for constructive dismissal may be taken under the Unfair Dismissals Acts, 1977-93.

Nevertheless, according to IBEC's Human Resources Management Guide, gathering the necessary evidence to establish a good case can be very difficult for the employee.

Based on case law precedent, the Employment Equality Agency - which has now been superseded by the Equality Authority - has warned that claimants should alert their employer and co-workers if they are being subjected to such treatment.

Lucy McMahon at Trinity College has discovered that bullying and harassment claimants only had a 50 per cent chance of success in their cases, and in the majority of such cases the claimants were compelled to leave their jobs.

The main recommendation from the Government's Task Force on the Prevention of Workplace Bullying, which reported in April 2001, was to charge the Health and Safety Authority with the establishment of an advisory committee on bullying. The Task Force rejected calls for new legislation in the area. Its preference is for the use of - the somewhat lukewarm and often ineffective route - of "codes of practice".

Only time will tell whether Irish workplaces will be successful in taking the bully by the horns. If not, we will all suffer.

Dr Gerard McMahon is a lecturer in Human Resource Management at the Faculty of Business, Dublin Institute of Technology ppl1@indigo.ie