Victorian Workplaces Serious About Bullying

A recent report has revealed that Victoria is one of the most active states when dealing with workplace bullying claims in the courts.

The report has also found that workplace laws in Australia fail to address workplace bullying properly, with state and territory OH&S laws concentrating more on physical hazard claims, rather than mental stress claims.

This is despite the finding that the average cost of work-related mental stress claims is much higher than the average cost of all workers’ compensation claims, in terms of costs and time taken off work.

The results of the report come after WorkSafe Victoria held its first seminar of many around the state to address the issue of Workplace bullying as part of the Respect at Work Campaign.

The seminar was attended by over more than 150 people and showed that preventing bullying was high on the agenda for workplaces, according to WorkSafe’s Acting Executive Director for Health and Safety Stan Krpan.

“The issue of bullying isn’t something that you can just ignore – the longer you leave it, the worse it’s going to get.

“Businesses need to act on bullying behaviour before it becomes repeated – anything else signals that these behaviours are acceptable.

“Look at your workplace for any bullying risks, put a bullying policy in place which responds to these risks, discuss it with staff, and act on it,” he said.

A series of seminars will be held around Victoria as part of the Respect for Work Campaign. The seminars aim to provide guidance for employers, managers and supervisors on what they need to do to prevent and respond to bullying.

For more information on the Respect for Work Campaign, please visit the WorkSafe website.

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