Moray Council is to spend tens of thousands of pounds to try to tackle a “culture of bullying” among its staff.
A survey of local authority workers revealed many felt harassed and picked on by their bosses.
The poll found that 30% of employees claimed to have been bullied while going about their duties – and 40% said their superiors had victimised them.
Now members of the council’s policy and resources committee have agreed to invest more than £136,000 in tackling the issues over the next year.
And there will be an ongoing commitment to eradicating bullying, with up to £62,000 being spent annually in future years.
The cash will be used to pay for staff training, external investigators, a telephone hotline so workers can report bullying and additional human resources staff.
But not all councillors are convinced the measures will be effective.
Elgin City North councillor Patsy Gowans worked at Moray Council’s offices before being elected.
She said: “I appreciate we are addressing these issues, but I don’t think the measures introduced will eradicate the culture of bullying at Moray Council.
“It really is endemic in that authority, it’s all over Moray Council. And putting thousands and thousands into it in this way isn’t going to help.
“The answer is to tackle the culprits, deal with them more strictly, and make them change.
“The council has hired new people into human resources but to me that just adds a further layer of bureaucracy to the problem.
“The council is a top-down structure and we have to analyse what is wrong from the very top.
“If we don’t have the right leadership, and that includes elected members, then there will always be problems.”
A workforce culture group was set up in September to try to devise solutions.
The group is chaired by council leader Stewart Cree, and also includes Heldon and Laich councillor Eric McGillivray, Elgin City North member Mike Shand and several trade union representatives.
The trade unionists, who are able to relay employees’ concerns anonymously, have suggested changes which may improve morale.
Councillor Cree emphasised the importance of maintaining a happy workforce during yesterday’s policy and resources meeting.
He said: “In much the same way as if you have a hole in the roof you do not want to stand back for too long and think about it, you want to take action.
“We are here investing in our staff to ensure things improve for them and to ensure they are kept in tip-top condition.
“Doing nothing is not an option, and this seems to be a reasonable approach.
“There is no silver bullet that will solve all of our problems, it takes many years for a culture to grow and it will take many years for a culture to change.”
The council’s corporate director, Mark Palmer, added: “We need to support managers and staff to look at how we change the culture of the organisation.
“Decisions will come from working with staff.”
Of the council staff who answered the 2013 survey, 40% said they had been victimised by their boss, 36% by colleagues, 25% by members of the public and 22% by supervisors.
Unpleasant remarks made up 42% of cases, intimidation 36% and excessive criticism or monitoring of work 37%.
A total of 5,181 survey forms were handed out to council staff in May and 1,506 were returned – giving a response rate of 29%.