>> So, does anybody have any *constructive* suggestions for how to remedy 
>> this unholy situation?
> 
> She needs professional advice. Workplace bullying is a very serious 
> problem that random strangers on the internet won't solve.

Agreed.

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, the union isn't being especially 
helpful. (Seems the union membership fees were totally worth it then...)

> The UK has an official Conciliation service with a hotline. You should 
> start here.
> http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1864
> http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=797
> 
> There are also some private charities running their own hotlines.
> http://www.nationalbullyinghelpline.co.uk/ (there are some links at the 
> end of the page)

The problem is not so much "bullying" in the usual sense of somebody 
with something personal against you. It's more that the whole company 
has decided to mistreat its employees.

Around about the time the financial sector imploded and the jobs marked 
evapourated, the company started being really aggressive towards its 
employees. I mean, after all, if you don't like it, what ya gonna do? 
Quit? You can't GET another job. So now we can abuse you all we like and 
you can't do anything about it. Ha ha.

Later, the strategy appears to have changed. Now they actually *want* 
people to leave. They seemed to be deliberately making the job as 
unpleasent as possible to encourage people to walk out. (If they make 
you redundant, they have to pay. If you storm out... much cheaper.)

My mother is a highly experienced engineer, and she earns quite a lot of 
money. She's an expensive employee, so they want rid of her. Since 
they've been unable to make her quit, now it seems they're trying to 
make out she's incompetent so they can fire her.

We're not talking about one manager with a power complex. We're talking 
about a systematic plan to save the company money by pushing people out 
the door on the cheap.

(When she was sent to see an occupational psychologist, he said that 
while he's contracted to work for about 80 major companies, lately 85% 
of his workload had been employees of this one company. So it's not just 
my mum here.)

The company, of course, will claim that the people standing over my 
mother, constantly watching her, constantly having a go at her, is all 
part of a "constructive program of continuous employee training and 
development" and that they're not bullying her at all. I don't know - if 
you can see that an employee is stressed out, would you spend 20 minutes 
screaming at them at the top of your voice? Does that sound constructive 
to you?

I don't really know what the right course of action here is. But 
certainly this kind of behaviour is unacceptable, and should not be legal.

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