As many as one in ten workers in the UK have some experience of cyber-bullying in the workplace, whereby individuals have been targeted and bullied by email or text messages at work.
Out of more than 1,000 people surveyed by the Dignity Work Partnership, one in five admitted to having being bullied by email while at work, while one in 16 said they had been bullied by text message.
Concern has been prompted that the prevalence of multimedia communication devices is facilitating widespread bullying in and out of the workplace, giving people ready access to their victims.
Mandy Telford, Unite Dignity at Work coordinator, emphasised the severity of the problem for those affected.
"Bullying in the workplace can destroy peoples' lives," she said.
"It also has a direct impact on an organisation's bottom line, and we hope that making the financial impact clear will help management and HR staff build a business case for tackling the issue."
Bullying is estimated to cost somewhere in the region of £2 billion a year in sick pay and lost productivity.
The national UK Workplace Bullying Advice Line states that there have been 8,125 cases of workplace bullying between 1996 and 2004.
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