News
A trade union has expressed concern at wide scale bullying of social workers within Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.
Unison reports that three-quarters of staff questioned in a recent survey claimed workplace bullying was a “serious” or “very serious” issue at the authority, with 60% saying that they were currently being bullied or had been bullied previously.
The survey also found that a third of the Council’s social workers had taken stress-related leave from their jobs, with 25% taking medication for stress or depression.
According to Unison, many of the problems stem from what are being called “dangerously” high work loads placed on staff, with workers having to deal with more cases than they can reasonably handle.
Andrew Freeman, regional organiser for Unison said that there was a problem with how staff concerns were currently being dealt with.
“We have had people disciplined for raising issues in Rotherham and that is serious. That for a trade union is probably our biggest concern.
"The main issue coming up is how management are managing those social workers, those front-line social workers in the field.
"Instead of treating the clients that they are seeing as human beings they are being treated as numbers and that can lead to bad decision-making so they feel pressurised just to turn the clients through a mill and that's not what social work is all about."
In response to Unison’s claims Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council said it was disappointed with the survey results and claimed its own internal survey carried out last year found “high satisfaction across the council”.
A council spokesperson said “We will not tolerate bullying and when evidence warrants it, we will take swift and appropriate action.”
