Combatting Bullying in the Workplace - a guide for Younger Workers

It's anti-bullying week here in the UK!  With this in mind, the lovely folks at Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust asked me to pen a few thoughts on bullying in the workplace, with particular emphasis on younger workers.  This is a handy guide that you may wish to share with someone who you suspect may be being bullied at work.


Other resources: Anti-bullying.co.uk.

Trade Unions Congress website: www.tuc.org.uk.

Currently...

Current Read: Fahrenheit 451, by American author Ray Bradbury.

I got a telling-off only the other night from a friend for never having previously heard of Ray Bradbury, before I stumbled across Fahrenheit 451 in Norwich's Forum Library a few weeks back.

The story concerns a future in which society's obsession with television and other new visual media has led to the outlawing of the written word, and the role of firemen is to burn books. With all traces of their former role reduced to dangerous rumours, fireman Guy Montag meets his quirky teenage neighbour, Clarisse McLellan, in the aftermath of his wife's suicide attempt and begins to question the role he plays in society. What follows leads to murder and to a manhunt, and ends with the protagonist meeting a number of exiled academics, who travel from place to place, each with the memory of a single book held safely within their mind.

The written style is simple and it is not hard to imagine Bradbury typing away at a ten-cent typewriter in the basement library of a 1950s university, in much the same way as one might use an IT suite now. His story has since been subject to many interpretations, but the author himself observed how a love of visual media was leading to a loss of interest in books, information presented almost entirely without context, and the danger of not learning from past mistakes.

The week after I finished the book, Bradbury sadly died at the 91 after a short illness. I might never have previously heard of him, but news of his passing was greeted in an official public statement from Barack Obama at the White House.

Current TV Shows: This year has seen the end of two long-running TV shows that we in the UK had inherited from US networks - 'Desperate Housewives', which I have absorbed from my girlfriend via some kind of slushy, pink Stateside osmosis, and the seminal medical drama, 'House'.

I swear that when the latter series ended on Sky a few weeks ago, it felt like there had been a death in the family. I moped for days afterwards and clung desperately to the thought that there are still some episodes from the final series that I haven't seen and that I could always run through my old DVDs. But while I'll miss it, I'm anxious to see what project Hugh Laurie will work on next.

American TV never rests on its laurels for very long, and new series '2 Broke Girls' is looking like a promising sitcom. There's a cute premise involving a business startup and two likeable main characters, and I may be a little bit in love with Max, the sharp-tongued waitress from the wrong side of the tracks.

Current Food: Techincally it's a TV show about food - but in very few places outside of Heston Blumenthal's lab will you get away with cooking a goat curry with lotus flowers on British TV. When Eastenders gets too much for you, switch to the GoodFood Channel and watch 'My Sri Lanka' with Aussie chef Peter Kuruvita.

Peter Kuruvita - he cooks goat.

Part of this show's appeal is that Kuruvita is engaging and respectful, and he sticks seamlessly to the positive aspects of his journey despite visiting areas which were recently ravaged by civil war. It also certainly doesn't hurt that the landscape he is travelling across is some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Stop reading now and go watch it!

Current Drink: If I'm going by what's in the fridge, bottled water. My partner has decided to set up an emergency kit containing lots of tinned food, medical supplies and the like so that we're covered in the event of civil unrest. I'm politely sceptical but if the zombie apocalypse comes now, at least I'll be able to stay under the duvet for a few days longer before I have to go loot the Co-op.

Current Blogs: The TUC Touchstone blog has some excellent articles, not least this one about why Colombia should not be offered a trade deal by the EU while trade unionists are still being intimidated and assassinated there.

Ireland - rubbish at football, but they've got great craic.

Current Excitement: Euro 2012! The Balkans have put on a fantastic show so far, with only a few banana-throwing Russians trying to spoil the party. The lamentably poor Irish aside, every team I have seen in the tournament so far has brought something, and I am cautiously optimistic about England's chances tonight when nippy Man Utd paceman Danny Wellbeck gets his chance to run at aging Swedish meatball Olof Mellberg. If the football is as impressive as the electrical storm above Donetsk, we're all in for a treat.

Trade Unions Lead Petrol Protests in Nigeria

It was announced today that the two largest trade unions in Nigeria are set to call indefinite nationwide strikes in response to a government decision to remove a fuel subsidy that has effectively doubled the price of petrol at the pump. The move seems set to increase conflict and violence in the already unstable Niger Delta region and has already claimed its first victim following the death of student Muyideen Mustafa at the hands of police at a protest in the town of Ilorin on Tuesday.

British readers are likely to recall the fuel disputes in Britain early in the '00s that saw blockaded motorways, protests and empty pumps. While there is a world of difference between the respective situations in the UK and Nigeria, there are still parallels that can be drawn with regard to the value that each nation places on the car and the desirability of cheap fuel.

The marvellously-named Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, has told the nation via his Facebook page that the current subsidy, worth a reported £1.5bn annually, was no longer sustainable. Instead, he claims that the money saved will be spent on infrastructure projects.

Nigeria is one of an increasing number of African countries who are set to exploit their natural oil reserves in the coming years. Those reserves are estimated by the IMF to be worth in excess of $20bn, a valuation that should be enough of an incentive for government to improve the country's farcical refinement facilities. As it currently stands, Nigeria is in the ridiculous position of being forced to import petrol and other refined fuels despite being Africa's largest producer of crude oil.

Such is the level of poverty in the oil-rich nation that some young Nigerians try to make a living by stealing oil from standpipes via a process known as 'Bunkering', and then refining the stolen product into diesel for use or resale. The Nigerian military is occupied with breaking up illegal refineries, which can be as simple as small pairs of water-filled cooling drums linked by pipes just a few yards long. Should the oil thieves escape military attention, the process itself is highly dangerous, with barrels of semi-refined fuel close to the open flames that heat the crude oil at the start of the process.

Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) spokesman Chris Uyot told the BBC, "We have the total backing of all Nigerian workers on this strike and mass protest." The expectation by the NLC and the Nigerian Trade Union Congress is that the country will be brought to a standstill unless the government reinstates the subsidy by the beginning of next week. If the strike does begin as planned, there are likely to be many others worldwide who will feel solidarity with the striking drivers of Nigeria.

March for the Alternative, 26th March 2011

I have a confession to make - despite my unerring belief in the cause promoted by yesterday's March for the Alternative in London, I didn't attend the event myself. Today, as I watch coverage of the event on the news and read the stories of those that marched, I realise that I have missed out on something very special and something that I had a great responsibility to be a part of.


As I know I have a few overseas readers, I realise that I may need to explain a little about yesterday's event. Put simply, the coalition government in Britain is utilising a number of questionable fiscal justifications to privatise institutions that are central to Britain's culture and living standards, such as the National Health Service. Rather than examine in detail the root causes of our financial crisis, they have sought to address the deficit issue at a breakneck speed, despite evidence suggesting that this is not the best way to support the fragile economic recovery. Using the deficit as an excuse, they have introduced policies that benefit the largest companies in Britain while penalising and marginalising the poorest and most vulnerable individuals.

Yesterday, finally, the government's plans were publicly opposed as more than half a million trade unionists, public sector workers, pro-peace groups and concerned individuals marched through the streets of London to a rally in the city's Hyde Park.

As anyone familiar with protests in modern Britain might have predicted, today's headlines are about the minority of violent thugs who descended upon Trafalgar Square well after the march had ended, and those members of protest group UKUncut who took direct action by occupying thirteen shops on Oxford Street that members believe are dodging corporation tax responsibilities. I cannot condone any of those actions and Trades Union Congress have publicly condemned those who have been involved in violent acts following the demonstration. Credit should go to Metropolitan Police Commander Bob Broadhurst, who was quick to state his belief that the destructive minority were not associated with the peaceful marchers who did so much yesterday to promote their genuine cause.

The march must be taken in context. Those on the route covered an entire spectrum of respectable society, including retired care workers, representatives of disability rights groups, middle class parents who purposely took their young children, and students burdened with debt as a result of the regressive policies of consecutive governments. More importantly, it represented the first genuine show of opposition to devastating coalition reforms. For me, it is a tremendous irony that opposition leader Ed Miliband did not make the march alongside the very people he will see as his natural supporters come the next general election.


The March for the Alternative was the largest march of its kind since the protest about Blair's war in Iraq. However, it alone will not be enough to derail a government who are gambling massively on economic growth paving the way to a stable future. Margaret Thatcher once famously stated that she was not for turning, and David Cameron will be keen to show that just because he does not have a mandate does not mean that he cannot seize an opportunity when one is presented to him.

It is a fact that strong opposition leads to stronger and more accountable government and this is the first evidence that the labour movement is stirring from its long slumber and preparing to face down the threat to its survival. 26th March 2011 will hopefully be remembered as a watershed for many reasons - it may be a day that prompted government supporters to consider the genuine consequences of their decisions, or a day which began a movement that successfully demonstrated the massively positive role that well-funded public services play in a healthy and vibrant society. Perhaps, most importantly of all, it will be remembered as the day that trade unions in Britain regained their pride.