Fax your MP
The recent UK government U-turn over the snoopers charter confidentiality bill was a result from lots of public feedback. You can fax your MP at http://www.faxyourmp.com with your comments on bullying; keep it short, professional, factual, and you might like to draw inspiration from workbully/costs.htm and action/lobby.htm

Staff leave because of bullying
Bullying fuels NHS jobs crisis at Lothian Hospitals, Scotland: http://www.edinburghnews.com/index.cfm?id=604502002

Climate of fear in Health Service
Recruitment problems continue in Scottish NHS: http://news.scotsman.com/archive.cfm?id=604122002

Bullies are bad for business
And we all pay for it. Following the Amicus survey last month revealing high levels of bullying and the ineffectiveness of their anti-bullying policy, Consignia report a record £1.1 billion loss. Perhaps there's a connection? http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_2041000/2041936.stm

When bullies go to work
Employers that tolerate abuse risk lower productivity, high staff turnover, costly legal fees - and worse: http://www.healthsmith.com/Org%20well/when_bullies_go_to_work.htm

UK Government promises clampdown on council bullies
Bullying cases within county councils (especially education and social services) account for at least a quarter of all my enquiries and in every case the council is spending huge sums of taxpayer's money on barristers to defend cases and protect the bullies. Lincolnshire County Council authority leader Jim Speechley illegally spent taxpayers' money, bullied officers and misused his powers as leader - but still kept his job now the Government is promising to take action against any council which abuses its power: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_2041000/2041059.stm

Clampdown on school bullies needed - in the staffroom
A feature article I wrote on workplace bullying in the education sector covered four pages (15-18) in the Times Educational Supplement (TES) Friday Magazine for 21 June 2002: http://www.tes.co.uk/search/search_display.asp?section=Archive&sub_section=Friday&id=365418&Type=0

Yahoo news coverage of bullying
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=AMA+bullying&c=news&n=20

BMA in £800K race case
The British Medical Association (BMA) has been ordered to pay £815000 in damages for indirect racial discrimination: http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7353/1541/a?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=chaudhary&searchid=1025872540536_5449&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&fdate=1/1/2002&resourcetype=1,2,3,4,10

Bullying in South Wales
See http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/ and Search (top right) for "bullying".

Bullying in Canada
See http://www.canada.com and Search (middle right) for "bullying".

Bullying in Tunbridge Wells
Senior journalist Laurie Mayer pays the price for blowing the whistle on bullying at the BBC: cases/case45.htm . This is remarkably similar to the case at http://www.helenreed.co.uk

Bullying in Germany
The Mobbing Report from Germany's Ministry of Labour suggests that bullying is worse in Germany than any other European country. The report estimates 800,000 people were suffering “intolerable” abuse every day and that 1.5 million workers suffered sickness caused by bullying. Suicide has also been identified as a consequence of bullying and the German government is considering legislation. Big industrial unions such as IG Metall have departments dealing solely with workplace bullying and courts have begun making large payouts to people who have complained of systematic harassment. In Saarbrücken a clinic to treat psychiatrically injured targets of workplace bullying has been opened where patients can receive treatment free from the state or through private insurance policies. Other countries take note.

This bully's number is up
Workplace bullying rarely becomes physical (in which case it's harassment and.or assault) but here's a horrific tale from the world of bingo: http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/cgi-bin/page?t=news&id=5005402

Workplace bullying research challenged
A man with mental health problems alleges he was used in manner contrary to ethical standards: http://www.careandhealth.com/arch/article_326.asp and http://www.expressandstar.com/artman/publish/article_5624.shtml

Samaritans report stress
A NOP-commissioned report on Stress, on behalf of the Samaritans.
http://www.teachersupport.info/index.cfm?p=1460
http://www.samaritans.org/know/thesamaritansweek/surveyonstress.html

Drunk on stress
The UK drinks more alcohol to alleviate (sic) stress than our European counterparts: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_2071000/2071131.stm

Denial still the main obstacle
Some people still deny that the earth is round. Some persist in denying the Holocaust. Many continue to deny the existence of the serial bully. If you haven't recently looked at my serial bully profile then see workbully/serial.htm #Types and ask yourself, "Who does this describe in my workplace (or family or community)?" If you can identify another subtype, let me know.

SCHOOL BULLYING

Child stress as bad as adult stress
Bullying emerges as a major cause of stress for young people: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2002%2F07%2F01%2Fnkids01.xml

Schoolgirl driven to slashing wrists
A South Wales school girl slashed her wrists in a cry for help after teachers failed to deal with bullying at Queen Elizabeth Maridunum school, Carmarthen: schoolbully/chldnews.htm#QEMS

Bullycide inquest
Bullying drove my heroic girl to suicide, says father: http://www.ypn.co.uk/ed/news/470485/,2,page.html

Survivors lose school bullying case
Court allows school to fail in duty of care: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_2096000/2096544.stm

Ontario teens suing school board over bullying
From Canada's Globe and Mail: http://www.globeandmail.com/ and search (middle left) for "bullying".

The Canadian Safe School Network
... is committed to curbing trends in youth violence in schools: http://www.cssn.org/

Christian school takes bullying "very seriously"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/06/28/nbully28.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/06/28/ixhome.html

Teacher Support Direct e-newsletter
www.teachersupport.info

Sidran Foundation
Traumatic stress education and advocacy: http://www.sidran.org

Wicked
For those of you who are into satire: http://www.satirewire.com/news/june02/self_esteem.shtml

MEDIA CORNER

Sport Relief
On Saturday 13 July the BBC is broadcasting Sport Relief. It's much the same as Comic Relief's Red Nose Day but is themed around sport rather than comedy. During the day several two-minute films cover subjects including violent abuse of children, juvenile gang violence and child labour in the developing world, bullying and bullycide.

Corporate bullying
Linsey Summers wants to hear from employees working in small private firms who have been subjected to Corporate bullying. Linsey is writing an article to highlight this abuse of employees and the inadequacies of the law and wants to include some real life accounts. The article will be published in 'Code' a fairly new national mens magazine. All correspondence can be treated confidentially; contact Linsey at Linsey17_@hotmail.com

New links this month

Barristers' views on personal injury stress cases
http://www.john.antell.name/indexstress.htm
http://www.cloisters.com/press.asp (last article)

Domestic violence
The Freedom Programme in Wirral, England, helps both women and men deal with domestic violence: http://www.freedomprogramme.co.uk/

MAN2MAN
is a web site for battered men: http://man2man.themenscenter.com/

Mothers over 40
Bullies choose any convenient but specious reason for abusing others, including their target having older-than-average parents: http://www.mothersover40.com

Video
A story of bullying, embracing difference and striving to achieve one's dreams: http://www.oliverbuttonisastar.com

Bullying by telephone
BT offer guidance on handling malicious telephone calls: http://www.bt.com/customerservices/cust_details.jsp?parentcat=cs_malicious_calls&childcat=linkcs_malicious_calls_work_together (see also related/malcalls.htm )

Book on legal aspects of harassment in the UK
Harassment Law & Practice at http://www.harassment-law.co.uk/book/cont.htm, Neil Addison & Timothy Lawson-Cruttenden, October 1998, ISBN 1 85431 834 9, £24.95

Stalking and harassment
A Scottish Parliament document on stalking and harassment: http://www.harassment-law.co.uk/scotstalk.pdf

Hazards
Hazards at work, occupational health and safety information: http://www.hazards.org

The Bright Side
Whether dealing with a crisis, coping with a mental disorder, or just feeling overwhelmed with life, we all go through difficult periods in our life: http://www.the-bright-side.org/site/thebrightside/

Be safe on the web
Internet safety education, cyber stalking and harassment: http://www.safetyed.org/

To receive free news updates by email send me your email address.

Back to News Index