This guide covers England, Wales and Scotland. Employment law differs in Northern Ireland.
In brief: If the bullying has nothing to do with a protected characteristic, a complaint you made or whistleblowing, an Employment Tribunal cannot hear a claim about it while you stay employed. The options are a grievance, resigning and claiming constructive dismissal (two years' service until 1 January 2027, six months after), or in severe cases a civil-court claim.
Last updated: November 2026
By Yerty | This guide was created using analysis of tribunal cases and official ACAS/Gov.uk guidance.
Bullied at Work But It Isn't Discrimination: What Can You Do?
A lot of workplace bullying has no obvious legal label. A manager who undermines you in meetings, moves the goalposts, excludes you, shouts, or makes your working life miserable for no reason connected to who you are. People in that position often search for their rights and find pages about harassment, which does not fit, or about constructive dismissal, which assumes they have already left.
This guide is for that gap. It explains what a tribunal can and cannot do about bullying that is not discrimination, what your realistic options are while you are still employed, what resigning actually involves legally, and what the published cases show about how those claims fare.
Important: This guide provides information about employment law in England, Wales and Scotland. Yerty is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Every situation is different. Resigning is a serious step with legal consequences, so consider speaking to a solicitor before you decide.
Can you take your employer to a tribunal for bullying alone?
No. GOV.UK states it in one line: "Bullying itself is not against the law, but harassment is." Harassment in that sentence means conduct related to a protected characteristic under section 26 of the Equality Act 2010. Section 26(5) lists the characteristics that count: age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation, and section 26(2) separately covers conduct of a sexual nature. If your bullying is not related to any of those, section 26 does not apply, and there is no other section that does.
Two other tribunal claims cover bullying as a reprisal: victimisation, where the bullying follows a discrimination complaint, and whistleblowing detriment, where it follows a protected disclosure. If either fits your situation, Yerty's guide to being bullied after raising a complaint or whistleblowing covers it. If neither does, read on.
The practical consequence is this: while you remain employed, a tribunal has no jurisdiction over your bullying. That is not a gap in your evidence or your case. It is the shape of the law.
Yerty's review of tribunal judgments that discuss bullying shows how people in this position reach the tribunal when they do. 35% of those cases carried no discrimination claim at all. Their route was unfair or constructive dismissal, whistleblowing, or breach of contract, which means the employment had ended or a disclosure had been made.
What can you do while you are still employed?
Three things, none of them a tribunal claim.
Raise it informally. Acas and GOV.UK both suggest trying to resolve the problem informally first, with the person concerned if that is realistic, or with your manager, HR or a union representative if not. This is not a legal requirement, but it is the first thing a tribunal would later ask about.
Raise a formal grievance. Your employer's grievance procedure is the formal route. The Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures expects employers to hold a meeting without unreasonable delay, allow you to be accompanied, decide the grievance and allow an appeal. A grievance does two things: it gives the employer a chance to stop the conduct, and it creates a record. If you later resign, how the employer handled the grievance will be central to a constructive dismissal claim, and an unreasonable failure to follow the Code can increase any award by up to 25%.
Document the conduct. Dates, what was said or done, who was present, how it affected you, and any emails or messages. Keep it factual. If the bullying is affecting your health, see your GP; medical evidence is often the difference between an account and a case.
What a grievance does not do is give you a route to the tribunal if the employer rejects it. An unfair grievance outcome is not itself a claim.
Should you resign?
That is a decision only you can make, and it is the point in a bullying situation where legal advice from a solicitor is most worth paying for, because resigning cannot be undone and the claim it creates has a demanding test. It is worth understanding what resigning does legally before you do.
If you resign because of the bullying, your potential claim becomes constructive unfair dismissal. Section 95(1)(c) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 treats an employee as dismissed where:
"the employee terminates the contract under which he is employed (with or without notice) in circumstances in which he is entitled to terminate it without notice by reason of the employer's conduct."
The employer's conduct has to amount to a fundamental breach of your contract. Bullying is usually argued as a breach of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence: the employer must not, without reasonable and proper cause, conduct itself in a manner calculated or likely to destroy or seriously damage the relationship of trust between employer and employee. A sustained campaign by a manager, or an employer's failure to deal with a grievance about it, can meet that test. A single bad meeting usually will not.
Four things follow from the law that people often do not know before they resign:
- You need qualifying service. Two years for resignations taking effect before 1 January 2027; six months from that date.
- The resignation has to be in response to the breach, and reasonably prompt. Staying on for months after the conduct, without protest, can be treated as accepting it.
- The claim compensates financial loss, not feelings. You may recover lost earnings, pension and statutory rights, capped at the lower of a year's pay or £123,543 for dismissals from 6 April 2026. There is no injury to feelings award in an ordinary constructive dismissal claim.
- The burden of proof is on the employee. It is for you to show the breach and that you resigned because of it.
Yerty's guides to constructive dismissal and constructive dismissal payouts go through the test and the money in detail.
What do the cases show about resigning over bullying?
Yerty reviewed published tribunal judgments in England, Wales and Scotland that discuss bullying, looking at single-claimant cases.
Constructive dismissal claims in those cases were upheld in 25% and dismissed in 68%. That is a higher success rate than harassment (17%) or victimisation (14%) claims in the same set, but it still means three in four did not succeed at a reasoned hearing.
The gap between those rates is mostly about the legal test and what has to be proved, not about how bad the bullying was. Constructive dismissal asks whether the employer's conduct was a fundamental breach of contract and whether you resigned because of it; harassment asks whether the conduct was related to a protected characteristic; victimisation asks whether it was because of a protected act. Each has its own threshold and its own evidential burden, and the same facts can clear one and fail another. The most common reasons constructive dismissal claims failed in the judgments are the ones above: the conduct did not reach a fundamental breach, the claimant delayed too long, or the resignation was for another reason.
Where a constructive dismissal claim did succeed in a bullying case, total compensation had a median of about £19,200, with half of awards between roughly £9,000 and £38,000. That figure is the whole award in the case, which can include other claims, and it rests on a small number of cases, so treat it as indicative. Unfair dismissal claims more broadly in bullying cases were upheld in 32% with a median total award of about £13,700.
Full breakdowns are in Yerty's findings on bullying at tribunal.
Is there a route outside the tribunal?
Two, both in the civil courts, both for serious cases, both needing a solicitor.
The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 creates a civil claim for a course of conduct amounting to harassment. The courts apply a high threshold: the conduct must be oppressive and unacceptable, of a kind that would sustain criminal liability, not merely unattractive or unreasonable. Employers can be vicariously liable for employees' conduct. The limitation period is six years.
A personal injury claim in negligence is available where the bullying caused a recognised psychiatric injury and the employer knew or ought to have known of the risk to you and failed to act. It needs medical evidence of a diagnosed condition, not stress alone, and the employer's knowledge is usually the hardest element. The limitation period is three years.
Neither of these is a realistic route for most workplace bullying, and both carry costs risk that tribunal claims do not. They exist, and in the most serious cases they are the only route to compensation for the bullying itself rather than for its financial consequences.
How long do you have to act?
If you resign and claim constructive dismissal, the time limit is 6 months minus 1 day from the date your resignation takes effect, for resignations on or after 1 October 2026. Before that date the limit was 3 months minus 1 day. You must notify Acas before claiming; early conciliation lasts up to 12 weeks and pauses the clock. A grievance or internal appeal does not.
If you stay, there is no tribunal clock running on the bullying itself, because there is no tribunal claim. The clock starts when something that is a claim happens: a resignation, a dismissal, or a detriment that follows a protected act.
How Yerty can help
If this is happening to you now, the Yerty Claimant Hub gives you a structured route through a workplace dispute, including a free Workplace Assessment, guided stages and tools for organising your evidence before you decide what to do.
For how compensation works across every bullying-related claim, see Compensation for Bullying at Work: What You Can Claim and How Much.
Frequently asked questions
Can I go to a tribunal for bullying if it isn't discrimination?
Not while you are still employed. There is no standalone bullying claim, and section 26 of the Equality Act 2010 only covers conduct related to a protected characteristic. A tribunal claim becomes possible if you resign (constructive dismissal), are dismissed, or the bullying follows a discrimination complaint or protected disclosure.
Is non-discriminatory bullying illegal in the UK?
Not in itself. GOV.UK states that bullying itself is not against the law. Severe bullying may be a civil wrong under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 or negligence, and an employer's failure to deal with it may breach the implied term of trust and confidence, supporting a constructive dismissal claim if you resign.
Do I have to raise a grievance before resigning?
There is no legal requirement, but it matters in practice. A grievance gives the employer the chance to act and creates a record of the conduct and the response. If you resign without raising it, a tribunal may ask why, and an employer's unreasonable handling of a grievance can add up to 25% to an award.
How long do I need to have worked there to claim constructive dismissal?
Two years' continuous service for resignations taking effect before 1 January 2027. From that date the qualifying period falls to six months, and employees who already have six months' service on 1 January 2027 gain the protection immediately.
Can I get compensation for stress caused by bullying?
In a constructive dismissal claim, no: the award is for financial loss only. Injury to feelings is available only in discrimination and whistleblowing claims. Compensation for a diagnosed psychiatric injury caused by bullying is possible through a personal injury claim in the civil courts, which needs medical evidence and proof the employer should have foreseen the harm.
How often do constructive dismissal claims for bullying succeed?
In Yerty's review of tribunal judgments that discuss bullying, constructive dismissal claims were upheld in 25% of cases and dismissed in 68%. These are rates among claims that reached a reasoned judgment; settled cases are not included. Where the claim succeeded, total compensation had a median of about £19,200.
What if I'm bullied after I complain about it?
If the original complaint was about discrimination, bullying that follows it can be victimisation under section 27 of the Equality Act, which is a tribunal claim with no service requirement. If the complaint was about something else, retaliation is relevant evidence for constructive dismissal but is not itself a claim unless it follows a protected disclosure.
Can I claim for bullying after I've been dismissed?
If you were dismissed rather than resigning, the claim is ordinary unfair dismissal, subject to the same qualifying period. The bullying is evidence about the real reason for dismissal and the fairness of the process. In Yerty's review, unfair dismissal claims in bullying cases were upheld in 32%.
Sources
- Workplace bullying and harassment, GOV.UK
- If you're treated unfairly at work: being bullied, Acas
- Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, Acas
- Employment Rights Act 1996, section 95, legislation.gov.uk
- Equality Act 2010, section 26, legislation.gov.uk
- Protection from Harassment Act 1997, legislation.gov.uk
- Employment tribunal time limits: changes from 1 October 2026, Business.gov.uk / Department for Business and Trade
- Unfair dismissal rights: changes from 1 January 2027, Business.gov.uk / Department for Business and Trade
- Constructive dismissal, Acas
Yerty's tribunal findings are based on published Employment Tribunal judgments from England, Wales and Scotland whose text discusses bullying, single-claimant cases only, reviewed to 1 November 2026. Percentages are shares of that set, not of workplace bullying generally.