There’s no two ways about it. Workplace bullying is fast becoming one of the biggest health and safety issues facing Australian businesses. It can have severe psychological consequences for victims, and – as many recent cases have shown – it can also carry massive fines for employers, organisations and even individual employees.
Just take the below case as an example: In 2010.
WorkSafe Victoria prosecuted the owner and some of the employees of a Melbourne café after a young waitress committed suicide as a result of being bullied relentlessly by three of her colleagues. The three bullying employees were fined $45,000, $30,000 and $10,000 each, while the café’s owner and the café were fined $250,000 combined for failing to maintain a safe workplace. Even though the owner of the café was not found to have engaged in any bullying behaviour himself, the court found that his failure to put reasonable systems in place to prevent the bullying or take any action to prevent it was a breach of his duties under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (VIC).
And the worst thing is that unlike many other OHS risks, it can be very hard to tell when bullying is occurring… While physical bullying may be easy to detect, other types of bullying, such as social and psychological bullying, are hard to put your finger on. For example, pinpointing exactly who has been spreading rumours about someone, or who is working to exclude someone behind the scenes can be tricky. In fact, someone in your workplace may be breaking the law right now – without you even knowing it! But making the effort to prevent bullying in your workplace is more than just good business practice – it’s the law.
Try taking these steps to preventing bullying, discrimination and harassment in your workplace:
1. Make sure you encourage respectful and courteous workplace behaviour.
2. Put in place a workplace policy that includes a process for reporting and investigating complaints. Educate everyone in the workplace about bullying and harassment – let them know what is acceptable behaviour and what is not.
3. Respond as promptly as possible to any evidence of inappropriate behaviour.
4. Treat all complaints seriously, and deal with them quickly and confidentially.
5. Train supervisors and managers about your company policy regarding bullying and harassment, and encourage them to address problems.
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