28% of police college staff bullied

Aug 30 2012

More than a quarter of people working at the Scottish Police College have been bullied, according to a staff survey.

Bosses at the Tulliallan college commissioned an anonymous survey of employees after the trade union Unison made allegations of systematic bullying.

It asked employees if they had personally been bullied or harassed by a manager or another colleague at the college.

Of those who answered, 28.2% - 46 people - said they had been a victim of bullying.

When asked if there was a culture of systematic bullying within the Scottish Police College, almost one in six agreed that there was.

Of those employees who answered this question, 13.1% - 21 people - thought this was the case while 86.9% of respondents rejected this. More than eight out of ten staff members surveyed said the college was either a "good" or a "great" place to work.

Over half of all respondents - 52.9% - described it as being a "great place to work", with a further 29.9% regarding it as a "good" workplace. Just 6.4% thought the college was a "poor place to work", with 10.8% classing it as "OK".

John Geates, director of the Scottish Police College, conceded some of the survey results were "troubling" as he stressed bullying and harassment were "completely unacceptable".

He said: "Whilst the survey showed a widespread rejection of the systematic bullying claims, some of these findings make troubling reading." He added: "Bullying and harassment in our workplace is completely unacceptable. We take this feedback very seriously indeed and we are committed to following it up and addressing it."

The Scottish Police College is part of the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA), whose chief executive Andrea Quinn pledged action to tackle bullying.