Bullying and Harassment at Work: Legal Options

Many people believe that if a manager or colleague is making their working life miserable, they can take their employer to a tribunal for bullying. The reality is stricter. There is no standalone legal claim for bullying and harassment at work in England and Wales. Instead, the law protects you through a set of specific routes, and which one applies depends on what the conduct is and why it is happening. This guide explains those routes, so you can work out which one fits your situation.

Is bullying against the law?

Bullying on its own is not a free-standing legal claim. There is no statute you can point to that says "bullying is unlawful" and gives you a right to compensation for it. Bullying is a general description for repeated, unreasonable behaviour that undermines, intimidates, or humiliates someone, but it has no single legal definition.

That does not mean the law is silent. It means the conduct has to fit a recognised legal route before a tribunal or court can deal with it. The two questions that decide which route applies are: is the behaviour related to a protected characteristic, and has it gone so far that it breaches your contract? Everything below flows from those two questions.

When does bullying become unlawful harassment?

The most important route is harassment under section 26 of the Equality Act 2010. Unlike bullying, harassment is unlawful in its own right - but only where the conduct is linked to a protected characteristic.

Harassment is defined as unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic that has the purpose or effect of violating a person's dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment. The protected characteristics are the same ones that underpin discrimination law - age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation among them (we cover all nine in the workplace discrimination guide).

Three points matter:

• "Related to" is broad. The conduct does not have to be aimed at you because of your own characteristic. Harassment can include offensive comments about a characteristic you do not share, or treatment based on a characteristic someone wrongly thinks you have.
• Effect counts, not just intent. The law looks at whether the conduct had the prohibited effect, judged partly from your perspective. The harasser does not need to have meant to cause harm.
• A single incident can be enough. One serious comment or act can amount to harassment - it does not have to be a sustained campaign.

Comparison: bullying versus harassment

Concrete examples of harassment

In similar situations, tribunals have treated the following as capable of amounting to harassment: persistent "jokes" about a colleague's accent or nationality; comments about someone being "past it" because of their age; mimicking a disabled employee's condition; unwanted comments of a sexual nature; and circulating offensive material about religion or sexual orientation. The common thread is that each is unwanted conduct tied to a protected characteristic.

What is the duty to prevent sexual harassment?

Sexual harassment is a specific form of harassment - unwanted conduct of a sexual nature. Since 26 October 2024, employers carry an extra legal duty around it.

Under the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023, employers must take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their workers. This is a proactive duty - it is not enough to react after a complaint. Where an employee succeeds in a sexual harassment claim and the tribunal finds the employer breached this duty, it can increase the compensation by up to 25 percent.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 is expected to strengthen this duty - for example, by raising the standard to "all reasonable steps" and widening protection against third-party harassment - but those changes are not yet in force. Check the current position before relying on them.

What if the conduct is not linked to a protected characteristic?

This is the hardest situation, because the Equality Act 2010 does not apply. A bullying manager who treats everyone badly, regardless of any characteristic, will not usually expose the employer to a harassment claim. But several routes remain.

Constructive dismissal. If the bullying is serious enough to amount to a fundamental breach of your contract - in particular a breach of the implied term of trust and confidence - you may be able to resign and claim constructive dismissal. This is a high bar, and the mechanics (the breach, resigning promptly, not affirming the contract) matter a great deal. We cover that fully in the constructive dismissal guide - delegate the detail there before deciding to resign, because resigning at the wrong moment can weaken the claim.

Your employer's duty of care. Employers owe employees a duty to provide a safe system and place of work, which extends to mental health and to protecting staff from a course of bullying once it is known about. A failure here can feed a grievance, a constructive dismissal claim, or in serious cases a personal injury claim where the bullying caused a recognised psychiatric injury.

The Protection from Harassment Act 1997. This is a civil (and criminal) route separate from employment law. The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 makes it unlawful to pursue a "course of conduct" (generally at least two incidents) that amounts to harassment, and it does not require any link to a protected characteristic. Claims under this Act are brought in the civil courts rather than the tribunal, have a longer time limit, and are harder to run - but they can matter where Equality Act routes are closed.

How should you build a record?

Whichever route fits, the evidence problem is the same: bullying often happens in conversations and meetings, not in writing. The single most useful habit is a contemporaneous diary.

Note what happened, the date and time, who was present, and what was said - as close to the event as possible. Keep copies of any emails, messages, or rotas that show the pattern. Save documents to a personal account, not just your work system, since access can be cut off quickly. For how tribunals weigh different kinds of evidence and how to organise it, see the employment tribunal evidence guide - that is the home for evidence detail and we delegate it there rather than repeat it.

How do you raise it formally?

Raising the issue in writing turns a private grievance into a documented one. A formal grievance creates a paper trail, engages the ACAS Code of Practice, and forces the employer to respond. Under section 207A of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, a tribunal can adjust compensation by up to 25 percent where either side unreasonably fails to follow the ACAS Code - upward where the employer ignored it.

The mechanics of writing the letter - what to say, where to send it, how to request a meeting - are covered in full in the how to write a grievance letter guide. We delegate the letter detail there.

What remedies might be available?

If a harassment claim succeeds, compensation is uncapped and can include financial losses and an award for injury to feelings under the Vento bands, with the up-to-25-percent uplift where the sexual-harassment preventative duty was breached. The detail of how those awards are built up belongs in the employment tribunal compensation guide, which we delegate to here.

What is the deadline?

For most tribunal claims, including harassment and constructive dismissal, the deadline is 3 months less 1 day from the act complained of (or the last act in a continuing course of conduct). This is a strict deadline, and in practice missing it almost always bars the claim.

Before you can lodge a tribunal claim you must start ACAS Early Conciliation, which pauses the clock while it runs - but you have to start it before the 3-month deadline expires. The Employment Rights Act 2025 is expected to extend many tribunal time limits to 6 months from around October 2026, but that change is not in force, so do not rely on it. To work out your exact date, use the tribunal deadline calculator, and see the employment tribunal deadlines guide for how the timing fits together.

Key takeaway

The word "bullying" describes the harm, but the law works through specific doors. If the conduct is tied to a protected characteristic, harassment under the Equality Act 2010 is a direct route. If it is not, your options run through grievance, constructive dismissal, your employer's duty of care, and occasionally the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. Whichever applies, start a dated diary now, raise it formally, and protect your 3 months less 1 day deadline. Do not assume that because there is no claim called "bullying", you are out of options.

This article is legal information, not legal advice. Employment law is fact-specific, and which route fits depends on the detail of what happened. If you are unsure how this applies to your situation, you may want to consider speaking to an employment law specialist.