Contact: Matthew Payten, Special Counsel; Carter Newell (Queensland, Australia)
Bullying behaviour in the workplace may be addressed in many different forums. In the first instance, the internal bullying and harassment procedure and dispute resolution process of the relevant employer ought to be an employee’s first port of call. Depending on the nature and the consequence of the activities, claims for workers compensation, discrimination, sexual harassment, adverse action or unfair dismissal may be pursued. These types of actions are perhaps more akin to treating the symptoms rather than the cause, and are dependant on some other pre-condition, whether it be the existence of an injury, a prohibited attribute upon which the bullying is based (such as sex, race, religion, etc.) or a termination. In severe enough cases, workplace health and safety or criminal complaints (assault, stalking, etc.) may be available. However, it was only with introduction of Part 6-4B of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Qld) (FW Act) on 1 January 2014 that a dedicated regime was created under the auspices of the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to specifically address bullying at work.
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