Respect and Dignity Statement

Respect and dignity of our people

We know that when you contact us, it’s important you get the service and support you’re looking for, and it’s important to us too.

If you with us, please be assured that we’ll do everything we can to resolve them. However, we do ask that where issues may arise, you continue to treat our colleagues with consideration, and respect.

All our colleagues have the right to remove themselves from situations where they are subjected to abuse, aggression, harassment or disrespect. We won’t tolerate it, and it may affect how we can communicate with you.

We understand that some people may find it difficult to identify the impact of their behaviour on others. We will always consider making reasonable adjustments for anyone with protected characteristics defined under the Equality Act, 2010, if we are asked to do so - but if someone’s actions or behaviours are having a negative effect on our colleagues or our work, we will act accordingly

our internal policies and procedures set out what we consider to be unacceptable behaviour to our employees. Below detail some of the actions we might take if we consider your interaction with us to be unacceptable.

Abuse or harassment

We care about our people, and will protect their personal safety and wellbeing at all times whilst at work. We will always try to resolve matters to your satisfaction and we do understand that any customer service challenges can cause feelings of frustration, but we will not accept or tolerate any behaviour, communications or language that we consider to be abusive towards our colleagues.

This includes but is not limited to;

• Violence, aggression or threats of physical violence
• Abusive, offensive, disrespectful or degrading language
• Racist, sexist or homophobic language, slurs or any other discriminatory language related to a diversity/protected characteristic
• Posting aggressive or abusive comments or content that identifies or names our colleagues on either your professional or personal social media accounts
• Sexually suggestive or intimidating contact of our colleagues, including uninvited comments or sending unsolicited material or content via any platform or medium
• Persistent harassment of our colleagues after an issue has been resolved or solution provided

Actions we might take

In the event we have taken reasonable steps to explain and resolve any concerns we have around behaviours or communication between our customers and colleagues, we may be left with no option but to take further action.

These actions include but are not limited to;

In circumstances where we have just cause to believe that our colleagues are being harassed or sexually harassed, we will refer the unacceptable behaviour or communication to the police.

Social media

We have profiles on Facebook, X , Instagram and LinkedIn. We use these social media profiles to signpost to our website to update followers on news and initiatives, and to better understand our customers and communities.

We do not tolerate abusive behaviour, communication or language towards our colleagues on these platforms, or on posts or comments on our colleague’s personal social media profiles.

Content that we believe to be abusive or unsuitable is escalated for further action, which may include contacting the author, reporting it to the relevant social media company and/or taking legal action including referral to the police.