Bullying and harassment:

8.Complaint against a senior manager or others

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    Introduction

    If you believe you are being bullied, harassed, victimised or discriminated against by a senior manager, non-council employee or the public, you can raise a complaint, in line with our zero-tolerance approach.

    Complaints against senior managers

    Should you decide to raise an issue about a director, executive director or the chief executive, this will be dealt with in one of the following ways, dependent on who the complaint is against. If you raise an issue with a manager, it will be forwarded to the relevant officer to be dealt with.

    If the complaint is against:

    • a director or executive director - the chief executive is informed and will appoint an investigating officer where allegations are verified.
    • the council's statutory monitoring officer or section 151 officer - the chief executive is informed and will appoint an independent investigating officer, in line with statutory provisions concerning the verification of allegations.
    • the chief executive - the council's monitoring officer will be informed and will appoint an independent investigating officer where allegations are verified.

    In all cases, the director of people services will be notified of the complaints and will advise accordingly.

    If the complaint is against the director of people services, the council's monitoring officer will advise in the first instance. If necessary, external independent advice will be sought.

    Complaints against non-council employees

    You can also raise a complaint against people who are not employees of the council.

    Violence and aggression from the public

    If you are the subject of work-related violence or aggression from a member of the public, we have separate guidelines for dealing with these types of incidents. There are several actions that can be taken against a member of the public including:

    • an initial response, such as:
      • writing to the individual
      • restricting their correspondence routes
    • a more significant response, such as:
      • banning them from premises
      • reporting serious incidents to the police.

    Download the guidelines

    If you are using a mobile phone or tablet and do not have the Microsoft 365 app installed, the word version of this document may not display correctly. We recommend that you download the PDF version instead.

    Elected members

    If your complaint is against an elected member, the chief executive and monitoring officer will be informed and the council’s process for such complaints will be used where appropriate.

    Contractors and staff from other organisations

    If your complaint is against a contractor or someone from another organisation and a working relationship between the parties needs to be maintained, you should consider the early resolution options as part of the informal complaint against a colleague procedure.

    However, due to the specific nature of the relationship between the employer and the individuals or organisations, the relevant manager will contact the appropriate senior person within the employing organisation to advise them that this type of behaviour is unacceptable and that, if it is repeated, the individual concerned may be refused entry to the council’s premises.

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    Employee confidential helpline

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    Use code 107574 to access the online resources.

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