Amid rising tensions, Boston City Council President Ed Flynn recommended that the body implement a no-tolerance policy for bullying in the workplace.

Months of heated discussions between councilors on opposite sides of a fraught redistricting process, along with reports that council staffers were mistreated, led to the proposal, several councilors suggested on Wednesday.

“It’s critical that we treat, as councilors, our staff with respect, and central staff as well with respect,” Flynn said at a City Council meeting. “We should have had this policy in place 30 years ago, but I’m going to get this implemented before I leave as president.”

The “policy on workplace bullying” would apply to all employees of the City Council, including councilors, their individual staff, and central office employees. Violators would be disciplined, “up to and including termination,” the document states.

“Boston City Council defines bullying as intentional, persistent, malicious, unwelcome, severe or pervasive conduct that harms, intimidates, offends, degrades, or humiliates an employee, whether verbal or physical, at the place of work or in the course of employment,” the document states.

“Workplace bullying is behavior that a reasonable person would find to be hostile or offensive.”

The policy would encourage those who have experienced this behavior to report it to a supervisor, and explicitly states that the Council “will not tolerate any form of retaliation against a person making a complaint.”

City Councilor Erin Murphy said there were a few things “with this term of councilors and behavior with the president” that led to the anti-bullying proposal.

Some of this has been legislative, in terms of councilors rejecting Flynn’s committee assignments, she said, which are typically non-controversial and made at the discretion of the council president.

“So, it’s kind of been mounting,” Murphy said.

The proposed policy was also sparked by “bullying” directed at staffers, according to councilors.

For example, there was a hostile interaction at a Council meeting about a month ago, during a particularly tense redistricting discussion.

An attorney for the body wrote a letter of complaint for the way she was spoken to by three city councilors during that meeting, a source who received the letter told the Herald.

In March, Eva Scapicchio wrote on Twitter that she reported instances of bullying committed against her by the District 1 councilor she worked for, a role held now by Gabriela Coletta, and the councilor’s chief of staff.

She claimed that the councilor “tried to control my personal life,” and that the District 1 chief of staff “harassed her.” Scapicchio also said she reported this behavior to human resources, but “nothing was done.”

In response to Wednesday’s policy proposal,” Scapicchio tweeted, “Thanks Council President Flynn. I wish this was in place when I worked there.”

Coletta told reporters Wednesday that no “current staff” of hers had expressed concerns of feeling aggression, either from councilors or other staff. She spoke favorably of the proposal, saying that it was a good idea.

“It’s a good framework for us to look at and point to when there is questionable behavior,” Coletta said. “So I do support the idea of working through it and just making sure everybody’s at the table to better understand how we can all be friendly and kind to one another.”

Councilor Liz Breadon said that the policy was “long overdue,” and raised concerns about how council staff was treated.

“I think as elected officials and political animals, there’s a certain level of rough and tumble in the dialogue and interaction between colleagues,” Breadon said.

“It’s just unconscionable that our staff — many are everyday people who serve Boston — should have to experience abuse, bullying from any member of this body or other members of staff.”

Breadon wrote a letter in April, regarding a public records request, filed by Murphy, that named one of Breadon’s staffers, Wayne Yeh, as taking part in the inter-council redistricting correspondence that may have violated the open meeting law.

At the time, Breadon wrote that Murphy’s decision to name a member of her staff as “totally inappropriate and irresponsible,” adding that “our staff should not be drawn into political disputes by councilors.”