Workplace bullying charity Andrea Adams Trust closes

A workplace bullying charity has shut down after 15 years because of a lack of funding.

The Andrea Adams Trust, which was established in 1997, closed on Friday (31 July) after its funding arrangements became unsustainable.

In May, the charity was forced to scrap a £65,000-per-year national awarness campaign to ban bullying at work after some of the UK’s largest companies ignored pleas to provide funding.

Lyn Witheridge, founder and chief executive of the trust said: “It is time for the Andrea Adams Trust to pass on the baton, and I urge other organisations who share our passion in the fight against workplace bullying to continue with our work.

“Recognition of the effects of bullying in the workplace is essential if it is to be legitimately challenged, which can only be achieved through persistent effort to raise awareness of this insidious practice.”

Lead partners for the 2008 National Ban Bullying at Work Day, which had run for six years, were Royal Mail and Amnesty International.

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Witheridge said Royal Mail had pleaded poverty when approached for funding, and accused other firms of “jumping on the bandwagon” and treating the tackling of workplace bullying as a box-ticking exercise.

Research last year estimated that workplace bullying costs employers almost £14bn a year and leads to 33.5 million working days lost.