Posts Tagged ‘Healthy Workplace Bill’
The Free Lance-Star: They Stand Up to Workplace Bullies
Monday, April 22nd, 2013
By Cathy Jett, (Fredericksburg, VA) The Free Lance-Star, April 20, 2013
Dr. Ruth Namie thought she’d be helping families solve their problems when she began working in a private clinic in 1995.
Instead, the clinical psychiatrist ran into one of her own. Her name was Sheila, and she proved to be the proverbial “boss from hell.”
Sheila was nice for the first three weeks, then began complaining that Namie was “worthless,” said Namie’s husband, social psychologist Gary Namie.
The bullying ratcheted up when Sheila overheard clients say that they drove an hour just to see Namie, and were urging others to go to her instead of Sheila. Sheila stripped Namie of her clinical work and gave her clerical work instead.
The Namies hired a lawyer, but discovered to their dismay that there was nothing illegal about one woman bullying another. They figured there must be some organization that could help, but there wasn’t one. So the couple started the Campaign Against Workplace Bullying.
Tags: Gary Namie, Healthy Workplace Bill, Ruth Namie, The Free Lance-Star, workplace bullying, Workplace Bullying Institute
Posted in WBI in the News | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Rare, clear, condemning opinion from a politician — Gabby Giffords on cowardly senators
Thursday, April 18th, 2013
Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords wrote in a New York Times guest editorial forcefully about her feelings toward (46) U.S. Senators who voted against the gun control package of bills on April 17. Excerpts from her Op-Ed article are below.
We advocates for anti-bullying legislation are told to tiptoe around lawmakers lest we offend them. Meanwhile the business lobbyists lie about bullying and the specifics of our bill. We get crushed by remaining civil and polite. It’s time for a change.
But Giffords reminds us that elected officials work for us and can be fired when they make wrong decisions. When their self-interest in re-election funds overwhelm doing the right thing for public safety and they coddle the NRA and Gun Owners of America and do their bidding instead. Her remarks are not delicate. Candor from this former politician is welcome.
We take her words as inspiration for all who help the campaign to enact the Healthy Workplace Bill. Giffords is a one-issue advocate now, like us. She spares no wrath when telling the truth. We should be so bold.
Here is some of what she wrote:
Tags: cowardly senators, Gabrielle Giffords, Gary Namie, gun control, Healthy Workplace Bill
Posted in Commentary by G. Namie, Healthy Workplace Bill (U.S. campaign), The New America, Workplace Bullying Laws | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
David Yamada: Emerging American Legal Responses to Workplace Bullying
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
David Yamada, author of the Healthy Workplace Bill has a draft of another important legal essay on workplace bullying.
Here is a link to his announcement for the upcoming publication.
Tags: David Yamada, Healthy Workplace Bill, workplace bullying
Posted in Workplace Bullying Laws | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
State of Maine enters anti-bullying legislative fight with HP 845
Monday, March 25th, 2013
Maine State House Representative Sara Gideon introduced HP 845 today. The “Act to Protect Employees from Abusive Work Environments” has 7 House co-sponsors and 2 Senate co-sponsors. Maine becomes the 24th state to ever introduce this legislation. To date, no state has yet passed the bill into law.
HP 845 is the 12th version of the WBI anti-bullying Healthy Workplace Bill introduced in 2013. A total of 9 states have currently active bills.
The bill is our attempt to get U.S. employers to take repeated, health-harming abusive misconduct as seriously as they currently must address illegal forms of discriminatory misconduct.
In the U.S., workplace bullying is still legal. Among the western industrialized nations, the U.S. lags far behind in (1) admitting the epidemic rates of bullying, and (2) passing laws to address it.
Tags: Healthy Workplace Bill, HP 845, Maine, Sara Gideon
Posted in Healthy Workplace Bill (U.S. campaign), Workplace Bullying Laws | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
CT Advocates for the WBI Healthy Workplace Bill on community TV
Friday, March 15th, 2013
Watch Connecticut State Coordinator, Dr. Kathy Hermes, and citizen advocate Laura Lillian Dickerson (a friend of a bullied target), on Waterford CT community television.
Tags: Connecticut, Healthy Workplace Bill, Kathy Hermes
Posted in Healthy Workplace Bill (U.S. campaign), Workplace Bullying Laws | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Workplace Bullying on Fox News — Andrea Tantaros Shines
Wednesday, March 13th, 2013
The Five, Fox News Channel, March 5, 2013 hosted by Dana Perino
A panel making insipid such as comments such as “if you are being bullied, you have a JOB!.” However, this is an important TV segment. Four of the five probably represent the American public very well, complaining that bullying can’t be defined, begrudingly knowing that harm can happen, but ultimately defending it as inevitable (or necessary). This is why opposition to stopping bullying at work is strong and widespread. Media fuel the opposition. Watch and learn.
One panelist, Andrea Tantaros, made the most serious comments, showing an understanding that workplace bullying is harmful and that employer actions mean nothing until there is a law (they are discussing the Healthy Workplace Bill). She sits on the far left.
Tags: Andrea Tantaros, Fox News, Healthy Workplace Bill, The Five, workplace bullying
Posted in Broadcasts: Video, TV, radio, webinars, Healthy Workplace Bill (U.S. campaign), Media About Bullying, Workplace Bullying Laws | 3 Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
AP: Growing Push to Halt Workplace Bullying
Friday, March 1st, 2013
Growing Push to Halt Workplace Bullying
by Sam Hananel, Associated Press, March 1, 2013
Margaret Fiester is no shrinking violet, but she says working for her former boss was a nightmare.
“One day I didn’t do something right and she actually laid her hands on me and got up in my face and started yelling, ‘Why did you do that?’” said Fiester, who worked as a legal assistant for an attorney.
Fiester doesn’t have to worry about those tirades anymore, but she hears lots of similar stories in her current role as operations manager at the Society for Human Resource Management, where she often fields questions about the growing issue of workplace bullying.
On-the-job bullying can take many forms, from a supervisor’s verbal abuse and threats to cruel comments or relentless teasing by a co-worker. And it could become the next major battleground in employment law as a growing number of states consider legislation that would let workers sue for harassment that causes physical or emotional harm.
“I believe this is the new claim that employers will deal with. This will replace sexual harassment,” said Sharon Parella, a management-side employment lawyer in New York. “People who oppose it say these laws will force people to be polite at work. But you can no longer go to work and act like a beast and get away with it.”
Tags: AP, associated press, employment law, Gary Namie, Greg Sorozan, Healthy Workplace Bill, Massachusetts healthy workplace advocates, Sharon Parella, SHRM, unions and bullying, workplace bullying
Posted in Healthy Workplace Bill (U.S. campaign), Media About Bullying, Print: News, Blogs, Magazines, Unions, WBI in the News, Workplace Bullying Laws | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Letter to the Editor: Shrewsbury Resident Supports Workplace Anti-Bullying Law
Monday, February 25th, 2013
Seen in the Shrewsbury Daily Voice
Dear Editor:
I am encouraging residents to support House Bill 1766-The Massachusetts Healthy Workplace Bill. The main purpose is to provide legal rights and remedies for employees who are severely bullied in the workplace. It also encourages employers to prevent further damages from workplace bullying.
Tags: Healthy Workplace Bill, Shrewsbury, workplace bullying
Posted in Healthy Workplace Bill (U.S. campaign), WBI in the News, Workplace Bullying Laws | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Anticipating opposition to New Hampshire HB 591
Monday, February 18th, 2013
The WBI-Healthy Workplace Bill in New Hampshire, HB 591, sponsored by the State Employees Association/SEIU Local 1984, will be heard in the House Labor Committee Tues. Feb. 19 (Details).
If the bill passes, protections against an abusive work environment (its definition in the bill follows the WBI definition of workplace bullying) would be granted to State workers. That means the opposition to the bill will not likly be led by the state chamber of commerce (the NH Business & Industry Association), though the bill is on their radar.
Principal opposition will be state agencies. The State is the employer who can be named liable for abusive practices that happen at their worksites. This alternate version of the bill has appeared in other states in past years. In each instance, State agencies make spurious claims that a new law is not needed. We contend that the HWB is necessary, given that bullying is so prevalent (35% of adult Americans experience it) when employers are free to exercise voluntary restraint.
Here is a six-pack of predictable objections and how to counter each.
Tags: Gary Namie, HB 591, Healthy Workplace Bill, New Hampshire, SEIU Local 1984, workplace bullying
Posted in Healthy Workplace Bill (U.S. campaign), Unions, Workplace Bullying Laws | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
KGUN-TV 9, Tucson, AZ, Dealing with Workplace Bullying
Monday, February 18th, 2013
Dr. Gary Namie guests Feb. 15 on Tucson ABC-TV, KGUN-9
Tags: Gary Namie, Healthy Workplace Bill, KGUN 9, workplace bullying
Posted in Tutorials About Bullying, WBI Education, WBI in the News | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Loading ...
Follow us on...