This report has been developed by ABC – National Anti-Bullying
Research and Resource Centre (ABC) at Dublin City University arising from
research on the profile and outcomes of work-related cases taken to the
Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) under the Unfair Dismissals Acts (1977–
2007) between June 2013 to September 2015 in which bullying is referenced by
claimants. Ninety-nine cases were taken under the Unfair Dismissals Acts (1977–2007)
during this period of time representing just 10% of the total number of cases
(n=1,018) taken to the EAT. As you will note from the following pages,
bullying was a sole or joint feature of 96 % of the 99 cases taken to the EAT
during the period under review. This means the word bullying was used in the
application to describe an aspect of the complaint. Some cases referred to
bullying alone; others referred to bullying and harassment or bullying,
harassment and victimisation. For the purposes of this report the use of the term
bullying may also imply harassment and victimisation. Harassment in Ireland is legally distinct from bullying. Harassment is defined in relation to nine specific grounds outlined in the Employment Equality Acts
(1998-2011) and the Equal Status Acts (2000-2011), whereas bullying spans a
number of legislative areas including labour law and health and safety
legislation, depending on the context and mechanisms used by respondents. All
of the cases examined for this report were taken by claimants under the Unfair
Dismissal Acts (1977-2007).