[Article] Bullying rife within Irish Rail

[Mark Hennessy]

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/bullying-and-harassment-rife-in-irish-rail--report-1713468.html


AN embarrassing report on Irish Rail exposes high levels of bullying and of sexual harassment in the state transport company.

The report, obtained by the Sunday Independent, reveals that almost a third of staff surveyed were bullied or harassed and many employees had "no confidence" in the company's ability to deal with their complaints.


The bolded bit sounds familiar for a lot of customers also.

[Mark Gleeson]

Comes as absolutely no surprise

As we have being saying for ages, the problems within Irish Rail are in the middle tier of management

[Mark Gleeson]

More

Irish Rail ‘bully’ culture breaches Health and Safety Act: union

By MAEVE SHEEHAN
Sunday October 04 2009
A culture of bullying and harassment at Irish Rail has placed the semi-State rail company in breach of health and safety regulations, a trade union has claimed.

In a letter to management, Siptu claimed that clerical staff had cited incidents of bullying and harassment by senior management and claimed that the "current environment" was not "conducive to an acceptable working environment and is creating considerable stress amongst the members which clearly places the company in breach of the Health and Safety Act".

Irish Rail says it hasn't received any complaints of bullying related to incidents referred to in the letter, but the correspondence highlights increasingly fractious relations between management and the trade unions.

Siptu sent the letter on September 22 on foot of complaints that two female staff were to be moved to new posts in the company.

It described the treatment of the two staff members as "a disgrace" and "totally unacceptable". "Our members wish to point out that they are no longer prepared to tolerate the tactics of management and the practice of dealing with staff in such a cavalier way," the letter said.

It concluded with the threat: "The union wishes to point out that if the current environment is allowed to continue it will result in conflict which you will no doubt accept is not within the interest of either party."

An Irish Rail spokesman said this weekend that it had received no complaints of bullying and harassment.

The spokesman added that the redeployment issue had been resolved in recent days with an agreement that the employees would be relocated on a temporary basis until acceptable permanent posts were found for them.

An internal report commissioned by Irish Rail last year revealed high levels of bullying and sexual harassment in the State transport company.

The report found that almost a third of staff surveyed were bullied or harassed and many employees had "no confidence" in the company's ability to deal with their complaints. Almost 30 per cent of those surveyed said they were bullied, almost 27 per cent said they had been harassed, and seven per cent said they had been sexually harassed.

Bill McCamley, a worker director on Irish Rail, has demanded publication of the report as part of his campaign for re-election to the board. Irish Rail said the Polaris report is already in the public domain, having been published in full on the company's staff internet site in March.

Irish Rail has maintained that it has worked closely with trade unions and staff to develop a plan of action to address the findings of the report.

- MAEVE SHEEHAN

Sunday Independent

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/irish-rail-bully-culture-breaches-health-and-safety-act-union-1903843.html

[Colm Moore]

"already in the public domain, having been published in full on the company's staff internet site"

Ahem, not the usual understanding of "public domain".

[Mark Gleeson]

And it would be a sackable offence to send it to someone outside the company...