In Short
- It is vital to understand what constitutes workplace bullying, discrimination, and harassment to effectively manage and prevent these issues.
- Business owners are legally obliged to provide a safe working environment, free from bullying and discrimination.
- Implementing clear policies and regular training can help mitigate risks and foster a positive workplace culture.
Tips for Businesses
Develop comprehensive policies that explicitly address bullying, discrimination, and harassment. Ensure regular staff training to promote awareness and understanding. Create reporting mechanisms that encourage employees to speak up about issues. By fostering a respectful environment, businesses can minimise risks and support employee well-being.
As an employer, preventing bullying, discrimination and harassment in your workplace is an increasingly important issue. Keeping your workers safe not only improves productivity and satisfaction within your business but also ensures that you are meeting your obligations at law. Recently, there have been changes to the law in regard to your obligations around preventing bullying and harassment in your workplace. Some of these include that you must:
- take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation, as far as possible; and
- expressly prohibit conduct that results in a hostile workplace environment on the basis of sex.
The Federal Government has also allocated an additional $15.1 million to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) and Fair Work Ombudsman to promote compliance and enforcement. This article answers five key questions around reducing bullying, discrimination and harassment, so that you can meet your business’ obligations more efficiently.
1. What Is Bullying and Harassment?
Bullying in the workplace generally involves repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed towards an employee that creates a risk to their health and safety. It can include behaviour that:
- humiliates;
- intimidates; or
- offends an employee at their workplace.
Although bullying is typically repeated behaviour, you should not ignore single or isolated incidents.
As an employer, understand your essential employment obligations with this free LegalVision factsheet.
Actions that constitute bullying or harassment include:
- aggressive or intimidating conduct;
- humiliating comments;
- deliberately excluding or isolating an employee from workplace activities;
- spreading malicious rumours about an employee;
- deliberately denying an employee access to information or other resources; and
- withholding access to information or other resources to prevent an employee from performing effectively at work.
Likewise, harassment can often be discriminatory. It can include targeting someone with offensive or humiliating behaviour based on factors like their:
- age;
- race;
- gender;
- disability; or
- ethnicity.
Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment covers a very broad array of conduct. It includes any unwanted or unwelcome sexual behaviour that makes the targeted employee feel offended, humiliated or intimidated. Importantly, a court will always judge matters based on what a ‘reasonable person’ would have anticipated.
New changes to the law regarding sexual harassment in the workplace include that:
- sexual harassment is classed as ‘serious misconduct’. This is conduct for which you can ordinarily terminate the offending employee without notice; and
- employees can make a “stop-sexual harassment order” to the FWC, similar to a stop-bullying order; and
- harassment on the basis of sex, as well as ‘unwelcome conduct of a seriously demeaning nature’ is expressly prohibited.
2. What Is Discrimination?
A person unlawfully discriminates against another person if they:
- treat them less favourably than others based on certain personal factors, such as their age; or
- require the other person to comply with a workplace condition that is the same for everyone but is not reasonable due to their personal attributes or circumstances.
Importantly, discrimination on any of the following factors or grounds (as well as many others) is unlawful:
- age;
- disability (including physical, intellectual and psychiatric disability);
- sex and sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status; or
- marital status, family responsibilities, or pregnancy.
3. Are There Other Workplace Behaviours to Keep an Eye Out For?
As an employer, you have an obligation to provide a safe working environment for your employees. This is not limited to physical safety and you must also take steps to ensure your workplace is free from psychological and other non-physical risks.
While the most common non-physical risks are bullying, discrimination and harassment, you should:
- keep an eye out for any conduct that risks your employees’ health and safety; and
- take active steps to eliminate or minimise those risks, as much as possible.
Strategies for managing risks include:
- developing policies and practices to address inappropriate workplace behaviour; and
- effectively dealing with any complaints from your employees.
4. What Should I Do First?
Firstly, you should ensure that employees are aware of your stance on bullying, harassment and discrimination. You can create awareness through:
- implementing workplace policies and training; and
- having leaders to help enforce workplace policies where appropriate.
Key policies that you should develop and maintain include:
- an anti-discrimination, harassment and bullying policy;
- a work health and safety policy; and
- an IT policy.
Be aware that simply having policies will not protect your business. You must take steps to appropriately draft your policies, communicate them to your employees, and enforce them.
5. What Should I Do in the Instance of Bullying, Discrimination or Harassment?
You may notice issues in your workplace yourself or from complaints by employees. While there are many strategies you can use to resolve any issues, they will differ on a case-by-case basis.
Some methods you could use include, when appropriate:
- an informal meeting between you and the employees who are involved;
- a formal internal investigation if the misconduct is serious;
- an investigation by a third party; or
- disciplinary action as a last resort.
Key Takeaways
You have an obligation to keep your workplaces free from risks to health and safety. If you fail to take measures to prevent bullying, discrimination and harassment, you may risk receiving legal claims from your employees. You can keep your workplace safe by:
- having clear anti-bullying and harassment policies; and
- holding training sessions for your employees to communicate your workplace policies.
If you need more information managing workplace bullying, discrimination and harassment, or your obligations as an employer, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 1300 544 755 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Workplace bullying involves repeated, unreasonable behaviour that poses a risk to an employee’s health and safety. Examples include aggressive conduct, humiliation, exclusion, or spreading rumours. Harassment often overlaps with discrimination and can involve targeting someone based on protected attributes like sex, race, or disability.
Employers must take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and victimisation as far as possible. This includes implementing clear policies, providing training, and promptly addressing complaints. Recent legal changes have increased enforcement efforts, making proactive compliance essential.
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