Has The Supreme Court Decision In Ruffley Established A Higher Threshold For Bullying?

The eagerly awaited Supreme Court decision in Ruffley v The Board of Management of Saint Anne's School has now been delivered. The importance of this case is demonstrated by the Supreme Court's own acknowledgment that "at some level, this novel case will set a benchmark for all bullying claims".

In appearing to limit the type of conduct that can be viewed as bullying, this benchmark is one that is likely to be welcomed by employers.

Background

This case arose from the imposition, in January 2010, of a disciplinary sanction against a Special Needs Assistant (Ms Ruffley) by the Board of Management of St Anne's School. Ms Ruffley claimed to have been bullied in the course of the disciplinary process, resulting in a serious impact on her mental health, and in respect of which she sought to recover substantial damages in the High Court.

In 2014, the High Court made an aggregate damages award of €255,276 in favour of Ms Ruffley, where O'Neill J. held that Ms Ruffley had been subjected to "persistent, inappropriate behaviour" which "wholly undermined the plaintiff's dignity in work". In this regard, O'Neill J. applied the definition of bullying found in the Code of Practice on Addressing Bullying in the Workplace, namely:

"Workplace Bullying is repeated inappropriate behaviour, direct or indirect, whether verbal, physical or otherwise, conducted by one or more persons against another or others, at the place of work and/or in the course of employment, which could reasonably be regarded as undermining the individual's right to dignity at work."

However, O'Neill J's judgment was subsequently appealed to the Court of Appeal, and was overturned by a 2:1 majority, with Irvine J and Ryan P finding in favour of the appeal, and Finlay-Geoghegan J dissenting.

While acknowledging the fact that "the Board may have conducted the investigative and disciplinary process in [a] hopelessly flawed manner", Irvine J. concluded that "on the facts of this particular case, objectively ascertained, the defendant could not be considered guilty of the type of repetitive inappropriate conduct which undermined the right to dignity in the workplace for a period of over one year as was found by the trial judge". In particular, Irvine J considered that in order to constitute repetition, the events relied upon had to be reasonably proximate to each other.

In dissent, Finlay-Geoghegan J concluded that "a right to dignity at work includes a right to be treated with respect and...