Addressing workplace bullying through legislation: What India can learn from the Netherlands

While workplace bullying is now internationally recognized as a significant problem with severe adverse outcomes and exorbitant costs for employers and employees, legislation to address it has been slow to follow even though legal measures are seen as important initial interventions that lay the groundwork for organization-based solutions. The Netherlands is one of four countries in the world with specific anti-bullying legislation and reports a relatively low rate of the phenomenon. Clearly, there is much India can learn from the Netherlands, given both the much higher incidence of workplace bullying and the absence of legislation to address the problem within the subcontinent. Through a study of available Dutch literature and interviews with key informants, insights will be sought into the Dutch Working Conditions Act on workplace bullying. The present project proposes to develop a legal and organizational framework for action for Indian society and Indian firms as well as to provide bases for further collaborative Indo-Dutch empirical research on effective primary, secondary and tertiary interventions addressing workplace bullying that have relevance for the two nations as well as for other countries.