Addressing Workplace Bullying: Legal Considerations and the Potential for Taking Legal Action - timscotty/timscotty GitHub Wiki

Workplace bullying refers to repeated mistreatment that harms, intimidates, offends, degrades or humiliates an employee. Common bullying behaviors include verbal abuse, offensive conduct, work interference/sabotage, and the deliberate intimidation. The question most victims of bullying at workplace have in mind is "Is bullying in the workplace legal and can you sue?"

While bullying is unethical and can severely impact the victims’ mental and physical health, it is not explicitly illegal under federal law. There is currently no federal law directly prohibiting the workplace bullying on its own. However, when the bullying overlaps with unlawful discrimination or harassment, legal protections may apply.

Discrimination and Harassment Laws

If the bullying targets a protected characteristic like race, gender, religion, age, or disability, it may constitute the illegal discrimination or harassment under federal law. Discrimination laws like the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protect employees from the mistreatment, bias, or hostility due to protected characteristics. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act provide similar protections based on the age and disability.

The bullying behavior must be clearly linked to the victim’s protected status to qualify as any illegal discrimination or harassment. For example, a woman being bullied by her female supervisor solely due to her gender could potentially sue for sex-based harassment under Title VII. However, generalized bullying without that clear connection to any protected trait is not illegal, albeit demoralizing.

Hostile Work Environment Claims

Employees can also sue for harassment under a hostile work environment claim when the bullying creates an abusive atmosphere that alters the work conditions. To prove this, the victim must show:

• Offensive conduct that occurred because of a protected characteristic
• The behavior was pervasive or severe enough to create an intimidating and hostile environment
• The employer failed to stop the harassment.

For example, consistent offensive jokes targeting an employee's religion could establish a very hostile work environment and enable legal action if the employer enabled the harassment.

State Laws Against Workplace Bullying

While federal law does not explicitly prohibit generalized bullying without a protected class basis, over 30 U.S. states are considering proposed laws called the Healthy Workplace Bill. This bill aims to impose the liability on employers who fail to prevent the abusive work environments. It would enable employees to sue companies directly for permitting bullying, regardless of whether the discrimination occurred.

The bill focuses on “malice”, defined as the deliberate or reckless behavior that violates the workplace safety standards. Similar versions have passed one legislative chamber in several states, though none of them have fully become the law yet. The goal is to motivate employers to curb the bullying via litigation risk, even when no protected class is involved. However, the opponents argue that it promotes unnecessary lawsuits.

Reporting Workplace Bullying

If you experience any bullying without a clear discrimination basis, reporting it internally is very important. While you may not have a formal legal claim, most corporate policies prohibit any general harassment and also abusive conduct. Human Resources departments are tasked with resolving the workplace violations internally. Reporting starts any possible documentation that could strengthen any future legal case.

You can provide written complaints to the HR, summarizing the the bullying treatment with specific examples and the names of witnesses. Ask for a formal investigation based on the company anti-harassment policy. Though they aren’t legally forced to act without any discrimination proven, most HR teams will intervene to protect the employee welfare and productivity.

In conclusion, the question of whether the general bullying is very outright illegal depends on your state and if the behavior overlaps with unlawful discrimination. While suing bullies directly can be very difficult without those protections, reporting abuse can still compel the employer action. Advocacy efforts for the anti-bullying laws continue as well, so employees may gain more direct legal recourse in the future.