Moray Council is poised to enforce stricter measures to tackle a “culture of bullying” among its workforce.
Earlier this year, elected members learned that harassment across its staff had reached epidemic levels – and vowed to spend more than £136,000 addressing the problem.
A survey of local authority workers revealed that many felt harassed and picked on by their bosses.
It emerged that 30% of employees polled in 2013 claimed to have been bullied – and 40% said their superiors had victimised them.
Almost 20% of employees who responded to a follow-up survey this year said they had been bullied.
The money is being used to fund staff training, external investigators, a telephone hotline so workers can report bullying and the recruitment of additional human resources staff.
And, as part of the council’s plan to tackle the problem, a revised bullying and harassment policy has been designed to address “persistent complaints about unacceptable behaviour”.
At a meeting of the local authority’s policy and resources committee today, members will be asked to approve the tougher strategy.
A report documenting the beefed-up measures says: “Considering the increased profile of bullying and harassment, it is now considered appropriate to enhance the policy.
“The council’s bullying and harassment policy has been reviewed to reflect the increased priority given to this area.”
Under the new guidelines, the process for dealing with complaints, investigations and appeals will be made simpler, and “early, informal solutions” will be emphasised to quickly defuse any issues.
Monitoring arrangements have also been reviewed to enable trends to be identified.
A workforce culture group, headed by Moray Council leader Stewart Cree, was set up last September to help boost staff morale.
Mr Cree said positive changes were already becoming apparent.
He said: “Rather than sitting back and bemoaning this state of affairs, the workforce culture group has been very active in coming forward with solutions.
“People have more confidence in bringing concerns to the council now, as they believe they will be acknowledged.”
In drawing up the new strategy, Moray Council consulted extensively with trade union groups and the fresh plan is expected to receive cross-party support.