TWO-THIRDS of Bolton workers questioned in a survey carried out by a law firm said they had been bullied at work.

Even senior managers had been on the receiving end of email, verbal and sometimes even physical abuse, according to the survey

One employee revealed in the study - carried out by Bolton law firm Kippax, Beaumont Lewis - that he was targeted for two years.

He described how he felt "humiliated and embarrassed" and even contemplated crashing his car on the motorway.

More than 400 employees, from a variety of Bolton companies, were questioned in the survey and 48 per cent of them claimed to have been bullied in the past, with a further 20 per cent saying they were suffering now at the hands of bullies in their job.

A new European Union Directive on bullying is expected next year and legal experts are warning businesses to act now to stamp it out before the laws have an impact.

Fiona Holdsworth, employment law expert at Kippax Beaumont Lewis warned: "An EU Directive on Equal Treatment, due next year, will place the onus on employers to implement a satisfactory policy to prevent bullying or harassment in the workplace. Businesses in Bolton should act now to stamp this out, or face paying out millions of pounds in compensation."

She said said that millions of working days were lost every year because of harassment and bullying, as victims became less productive and suffered from high stress levels.

And all levels of seniority in the workplace were victims of bullying, she claimed. "A growth area of bullying is via email," she added.

"Threatening emails from superiors mean bullied staff will experience a large rise in stress levels and feelings of negativity about the organisation, which ultimately means lower productivity and a higher absence rate."

Paul Foster, policy and communications executive at Chamber Business Connections in Bolton, said: "We are keen to see all local businesses work towards eliminating bullying in the workplace.

"As a Chamber of Commerce we actively promote equal opportunities in our workplace and in the workplaces of all our member businesses. Harassment and bullying can take many forms, but will always result in an unhappy employee, a workforce that fails to work as a team and a business that does not function as effectively as it should."