Workplace bullying costs the Irish economy almost €240 million per year, a new study from NUI Galway has found.

Bullying in the workplace is described as aggressive behaviour perpetrated by one or more people, repeatedly and systematically over a prolonged time period, where the targeted person feels unable to defend themself.

According to the researchers, this is a "pervasive problem with significant personal, social and economic costs".

They set out to estimate the value of lost productivity to the economy as a result of bullying in both the public and private sectors.

Using statistical methods and data from 2017, the researchers were able to estimate that a total of 1.7 million work days are lost every year as a result of bullying, at a cost of just over €239 million to the economy.

They estimated the annual loss of productivity in the public sector to be €51.8 million, while in the private sector, it was estimated to be €187.6 million - a total of €239.3 million.

They emphasised that the economic value of lost productivity from workplace bullying in Ireland is "significant". They also noted that while bullying is more prevalent in the public sector, it has a larger impact on absences in the private sector.

Given this, and the fact that more people work in the private sector overall, they concluded that productivity losses "are considerably larger in the private sector in Ireland".

According to one of the study's lead researchers, Dr John Cullinan, this study "highlights the considerable economic cost of workplace bullying in Ireland".

"In addition to lost productivity from workplace bullying, there are also likely to be costs associated with early retirement and presenteeism. Furthermore, bullying-related costs are unlikely to have gone away as a result of new COVID-19 work-from-home practices," he commented.

Meanwhile, according to co-lead researcher, Dr Margaret Hodgins, if organisations are to tackle this problem, they need an anti-bullying policy "in order to signal to staff that bullying is unacceptable".

"However, a policy is insufficient in itself and it is vital that it is implemented fairly and in a timely fashion. Ideally, organisations should be proactive, identifying how and when bullying occurs in the organisation, and be prepared to develop specific interventions that are appropriate to context," she said.

The study is published in the journal, Occupational Medicine.