There is still no urgency about the State's response to a major workplace problem, writes Chris Dooley.
It is too early to say whether the Government is getting serious about the problem of workplace bullying, but the signs are not encouraging.
The report published yesterday by an expert group set up last year to advise on the issue is undoubtedly a step in the right direction.
But there is still no sense of urgency about the State's response to a problem which affects many tens of thousands of workers.
Asked yesterday how soon the new report might be implemented, Minister of State for Labour Affairs Tony Killeen said he hoped to make recommendations to the Government "within a year or so".
First, he explained, he would need to consult the social partners on how to proceed, and the outcome of that process would inform the Government's thinking.
This was a baffling response. Both the employers' body, Ibec, and the trade unions were represented on the expert group in the first place. If their views are already reflected in the report published yesterday, why the need for further consultations before it is implemented?
It is not as if the advisory group, which was chaired by Paul J Farrell of IBM Ireland, does not spell out the seriousness of the problem and the urgency of the need to address it.
Workplace bullying, the report states, is increasing, and existing measures to tackle the problem are insufficient.
"The impact of bullying on the individual is so severe that strong action on the part of employers and the State is called for," it says.
A key recommendation is that the inclusion of bullying as a risk, together with policies to address that risk, should be mandatory in every employer's safety statement.
This would be a significant step, because it would give the Health and Safety Authority the power to prosecute employers for failing to include anti-bullying policies in safety statements.
Ibec, however, was a dissenting voice on the expert group and opposed this measure. Forcing employers to include anti-bullying policies in safety statements would be problematic for small and medium-sized enterprises, it argued.
It is clear then that further horse-trading will be required before the Minister has the full backing of the social partners for a comprehensive anti-bullying strategy.
Ibec also opposed another of the group's main recommendations, namely that decisions of either the Labour Court or the Employment Appeals Tribunal in cases of alleged bullying should be binding and legally enforceable through the courts.
The employers' body argued in this instance that existing codes of practice and Labour Court powers were sufficient to deal with the problem.
The existing codes came into effect in 2001, following publication of the report of the Task Force on the Prevention of Bullying in the Workplace.
The codes have what has been described as "semi-legal status". It would help an employer's case, for example, if the company could demonstrate in court that it had adhered to a recognised anti-bullying code of practice.
Beyond that, however, the codes are not legally binding. Indeed, the 2001 taskforce specifically decided not to recommend new legislation outlawing bullying in the workplace, concluding instead that existing laws were sufficient.
Yesterday's report of the Expert Advisory Group on Workplace Bullying clearly indicates that the approach advocated in 2001 has not worked.
To what extent it has failed, however, remains a matter of conjecture.
The expert group, which was given three months by Killeen's predecessor, Frank Fahey, to carry out its work, says that it was hampered by the "scarcity of reliable statistical data on workplace bullying".
As it did not have time to conduct its own research, the group relied on a survey carried out for the 2001 taskforce report as the main source of its information.
That survey found that one in 12 people are bullied at work. In today's expanded labour force of nearly two million, that would suggest that some 160,000 Irish workers are victims of bullying in the workplace - not allowing for the group's assertion that the problem is increasing.
It is clearly a huge problem and it is hardly reassuring that, a year from now, the Government will be considering what to do about it.