A new contract between the Forest Service and the NFFE union contains a protection aimed at workplace bullying that is one of the first of its kind, the union has announced.
The new master agreement “will include a definition of workplace bullying, a prohibition of such behavior, and requirements that agency management investigate allegations . . . and clearly defines it in a more than physical, school-yard, bully sense. Previous policies mention bullying in the context of workplace violence, but rarely address the more subtle, psychological bullying that characterizes workplace bullying,” the union said.
The union said it has been “working for years to get the Forest Service to implement anti-bullying policies or committing to an environment that fosters respect for individual values and appropriate conduct among all employees throughout the agency.”
It said that while many employees believe they are protected from bullying by agency policy statements supporting the rights of employees to workplaces free of harassment, such policies provide formal protection only if the harassment falls into one of the categories of discrimination banned by EEO law.
Where harassment is not based on any of those factors, or when a coworker treats everyone equally badly, for example, “union representatives have long had the unhappy task of telling employees in these situations that they likely had no recourse,” NFFE said.