![]() In that case, the court accepted that, for the purposes of the Ministerial Code, conduct would constitute bullying if it could be characterised as: That was in the application by the civil servants’ union, the FDA, for judicial review of the approach of the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, to a complaint about the conduct of the former home secretary, Priti Patel. But he did draw attention to the fact that it is a term that was examined in a case that had come before the High Court in 2021 in R (FDA) v Prime Minister and Minister for the Civil Service EWHC 3279 (Admin). He acknowledged that ‘bullying’ is not a legally defined term and that it is not a term for the purposes of the Ministerial Code either. Over five pages in his report, Tolley focused specifically on this issue. What was not generally expected, however, was that in delivering his report, Tolley would take such time and care over defining what exactly was meant by the term ‘bullying.’ He correctly identified that this was going to be critical to the findings he would ultimately make about Raab’s conduct in his report. There was also much discussion around whether Raab was a demanding person and a perfectionist and, therefore, whether he was entitled to tell those working for him when he perceived they were not meeting his high standards. At the time, and especially more recently, there was an enormous focus on whether the outcome would mean that Raab would need to resign from his post or be dismissed. On 23 November 2022, Adam Tolley KC was appointed by the Prime Minister to carry out an investigation into the facts surrounding the formal complaints that had been made about the conduct of the then deputy prime minister and secretary of state for justice. Law firms, of course, can have similar ‘high octane’ environments to ministerial departments (the context of Dominic Raab’s case) where standards are high and issues can frequently arise when conversations, discussions and appraisals come to address whether employees have met those standards or not. Much of this may now be set to change – in all workplaces, including law firms. In other serious cases it may be possible to bring a personal injury claim. This is difficult to do, not least because the conduct complained must be really serious - in terms, such that it might justify the sanction of the criminal law. Even more difficult is the possibility of bringing a claim in respect of bullying behaviour in the civil courts under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. In many cases this could be seen as a somewhat artificial construct as, in truth, the real complaint is of bullying behaviour pure and simple, not behaviour brought about by an act of discrimination. This has had the consequence that such claims are generally brought as something else, most often as part of a discrimination claim before an Employment Tribunal in reference to one of the ‘protected characteristics’ under the Equality Act 2010, such as sex, race, disability and age. ![]() Secondly, we have never had a specific piece of legislation that outlaws acts of bullying. Although some guidance has been offered, for example, in the ACAS guidance on handling a bullying, harassment or discrimination complaint at work and in the IBA report (which stated that bullying is typically understood as ‘exposure to aggressive behaviour or incivility by supervisors, colleagues or third parties’), there is no universally accepted legal definition of bullying. The first issue is that, for many years, it has not been entirely clear what constitutes ‘bullying’ and how it can be defined. These recent developments and, in particular, Adam Tolley KC’s carefully drawn report on the allegations against Dominic Raab - a former practising solicitor - has at last shone a spotlight on two major issues with this type of claim. Law firms are not immune to this issue, as notably highlighted in the report issued by the International Bar Association (IBA) in May 2019, analysing the findings of the largest ever global survey on bullying and sexual harassment in the legal profession. ![]() Only recently, a TUC poll found as many as three in five of the women surveyed reported that having experienced sexual harassment, bullying or verbal abuse at work. ![]() It is clear that bullying continues to be an issue in many workplaces. One of the most high-profile cases played out in the media in the last few weeks is that of the former justice secretary, Dominic Raab. In the past month we have travelled a long way in a short period of time with regard to the area of bullying allegations at work. Richard Fox, Jessica Clay and Lucinda Soon discuss what constitutes workplace bullying in light of the recent high-profile case against former justice secretary Dominic Raab. This article was first published by Solicitors Journal on 17th May.
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