The Victorian Government Legislates Against Bullying

While Occupational Health and Safety legislation and contracts of employment already contain obligations on employers to ensure that employees are not subjected to workplace bullying, the Victorian Government on 5 April 2011 introduced legislation to State Parliament to make it clear that serious bullying is a criminal offence carrying a penalty of up to 10 years in jail.

The Crimes Amendment (Bullying) Bill 2011 (Vic) provides that threats and abusive words or acts can be a course of conduct that amounts to stalking, as can any other action that could reasonably be expected to cause physical or mental harm to the victim. The definition of “harm” caught by the offence includes self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

Changes will be made to similar legislation to allow victims of serious workplace bullying to apply for intervention orders, thereby allowing a victim to seek an order to protect themselves against situations of serious bullying at an early stage.

The introduction of the Bill follows the death of Brodie Panlock, a 19 year old waitress who committed suicide following relentless insults, criticism, humiliation and physical bullying by fellow employees in a Victorian café. 

The café owner and his Company, as well as the employees responsible for the bullying, were collectively fined $330,000 for their breaches of Occupational Health and Safety legislation. The Magistrate noted he would have doubled the penalties had the employer and workers not pleaded guilty.

Bullying continues to be a major problem in Australian workplaces, with a recent Comcare compliance audit demonstrating a widespread lack of knowledge of what constitutes bullying, and that bullying incidents are reportable safety incidents.

A report by the Productivity Commission has also found that worker’s compensation claims for stress and mental or psychological injury are more costly on average than worker’s compensation claims for psychical injuries, in terms of direct cost and time taken off work. These types of claims also appear to be on the rise.

Bullying can be described as behaviour that could reasonably be considered to be humiliating, intimidating, threatening or demeaning to a person or group of people and which therefore creates a risk to health and safety. 

While there is a recent trend by employers and their representatives to reduce the amount of workplace policies and procedures they have in place, Workplace Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination are areas for which every workplace should have up to date policies, procedures and training. 

If you would like to have your workplace policies or procedures reviewed for legislative compliance, or if you would like us to conduct training at your workplace for managers and employees about Workplace Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination, please don’t hesitate to contact National Workplace Lawyers on +61 2 9233 3989. 

National Workplace Lawyers

Note — this is for information purposes only and does not purport to be comprehensive or to render legal advice.