04:57 pm, Tuesday 2 April, 2013

The main public sector union in Australia has stated that increased pressure in the workplace has meant that the workers’ compensation claims by federal public servants naming psychological injuries have increased.

The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) representative said yesterday that this is not a surprise as a review of Comcare revealed that there was a 30 percent increase in claims for mental stress and that is was four times more likely that they would come from the public service than other areas.

Peter Hanks QC, a Melbourne barrister who reviewed Comcare said that these claims may be the result of government-enforced efficiency dividends, constant performance evaluations and changing workplaces were meaning additional stresses for public service workers.

He said that it could be that poor management is also a factor in the increase in psychological injuries as many talked about bullying and harassment in their claims.

Mr Hanks and co-author Allen Hawke, a former Defence Department chief, included 147 recommendations in their Comcare review and the union supports working through these recommendations to ensure that the serious issues receive the consideration that the need.

CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood said that they did not support rehabilitation and returning people to the workforce but not people losing rights and entitlements.

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12:55 pm, Friday 13 July, 2012

Unions NSW is pressing for an expansion of the list of risk factors for workplace bullying to include work overload, systems changes, exposure to violence and fatigue, and bad safety practice.

The Herald Sun reported that the union is seeking mandatory reporting of psychological injuries and funding for a national bullying helpline.

In Unions NSW’s submission for the federal inquiry into workplace bullying, they expressed their desire to have psychological and mental health damage to workers included in the definition of workplace bullying.

“Often workplace bullying is the secondary hazard that results (in) injury after the presence of other workplace hazards including psychological hazards,” said Unions NSW in the submission.

“For example violence, unsafe work practices, work overload and unclear work practices or inadequate work training may lead to higher exposure to workplace stress and a higher risk of workplace bullying behaviours causing…. injury to the worker(s).

“The increased stress may also cause people to use behaviour that may be viewed as bullying behaviour.”

The Herald Sun further reported that the Australian Industry Group agreed workplace bullying was a significant issue and more effort is needed to address it.

Director of national workplace relations, Stephen Smith however said that many workplace bullying complaints are invalid.

“The statistics… show that many complaints about workplace bullying turn out to not be valid – for example if an employer disciplines a poor performing employee in a reasonable way that is not bullying even though the employee may think that it is.”

In a reporting yesterday, the Productivity Commission estimates that workplace bullying costs Australia up to $36 billion per year.

Costs of workplace bullying to the government and businesses are increasing with increased workers’ compensation claims, legal bills, absenteeism, mental health issues, low morale and decreased productivity.

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