UK businesses should do more to lower the number of employees falling victim to bullying, the Trades Union Congress'(TUC) Brendan Barber has said.
The union's general secretary said it was in the interest of British companies to tackle the problem of workplace bullying because of the lost hours caused by stressed and harassed workers.
His call comes on national ban bullying at work day, which is seeking to raise the profile of those who are shouted at, made the butt of jokes or criticised in front of others at work.
"Bullying is not hard to tackle and employers who ignore the problem and fail to protect their staff are breaking the law," Mr Barber said.
"Every workplace should have a policy which makes clear that intimidating behaviour towards colleagues will not be tolerated and that those who persist in undermining their fellow members of staff will be dealt with severely."
According to recent research from the University of Manchester, nearly half of employees have witnessed bullying at work and one in ten have fallen victim in the last six months.
A 2005 survey of human resource professionals by the Andrea Adams Trust found 53 per cent had been bullied at work, with over one in three claiming the abuse affected their health.
"People on the receiving end of cutting remarks or verbal outbursts from the workplace bully are the ones paying a heavy price for employers' failure to deal with the problem," Mr Barber added.
"The stress and anxiety felt by the victims can make them physically ill, lose all their self-confidence and mean that they dread coming into work."
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