Christopher Davies, professional support lawyer, Halliwells

This week’ show saw adversaries Helene Speight and Lucinda Ledgerwood manage their respective teams in the wedding dress challenge. Lucinda again showed good management skills and her team clearly got on well and was well organised. Their good planning and preparation led to them easily winning the task of making more money from the sales of wedding dresses.

However in the Boardroom it was not losing project leader Helene who was dismissed as she passed the blame to the unfortunate Sara Dhada. It was a disappointing decision as Sara has had to suffer a great deal of what can only be described as bullying by the other contestants.

It brought back memories of the treatment of 'Celebrity Big Brother' contestant Shilpa Shetty when three other contestants appeared to 'gang up' on her. The comments in that show about the only Asian in the contest outraged viewers and led to a record number of formal complaints. It also made the subject of bullying and racism the number one topic of conversation in the workplace.

Sara Dhada has since leaving the show confirmed that she was bullied throughout the programme. Again discussions on the topic of bullying are sure to be on the increase following the show and whilst this may raise awareness and help some employees avoid causing unintentional offence it is also likely to lead to more complaints in the workplace. It is therefore a good time for employers to review their bullying or harassment policy and to remind managers to be alert to any sign of discrimination or bullying and investigate immediately.

Bullying in the workplace may take many forms, sometimes physical, sometimes mental. In some cases there will be a link to characteristics of the victim, for example the mimicking of an employee's voice or accent. In other cases the bullying may be based on the simple and brutal assessment by one that he or she is bigger and/or more important than another in the workplace.

The problem is that bullying is often seen as something that happens somewhere else. An office manager may consider that it might occur in a factory. The factory supervisor may consider that it might happen in a builder's yard. The foreman in the builder's yard might think it will happen in a big office. The fact is that bullying has been consistently shown in workplace surveys throughout all sectors as the biggest concern for all employees in the UK. In recent years one survey showed that nearly one third of employees within the City's financial sector had experienced bullying at work, with more saying they had witnessed others being bullied or harassed.

It is important that all employers take preventative action to stop bullying. If they fail to do so the consequences can be severe as there will be the risk of constructive dismissal, stress and discriminations claims.