ABSTRACT
Psychological workplace risks that can cause stress, such as bullying and harassment have increasingly become generally acknowledged as global issues, affecting all countries, professions, and workers. Many bullying and harassment laws stem from an acknowledgement that under much of workplace health and safety legislation, employers have a duty of care to provide a safe work environment for employees, visitors, and contractors. Workplace bullying and harassment, including sexual harassment, as well as discrimination and violence, are linked to and result in workplace stress. Protecting psychological health and safety risks at work and preventing workplace stress are connected issues. The presence of violence and harassment in the workplace represents very considerable costs to individuals in terms of ill health and with respect to their employment relationship. Around the world, a variety of terms are used for workplace bullying, mobbing, psychological abuse, psychological violence, and/or harassment. Psychosocial hazards at work are not equivalent to stress at work.
