04:07 pm, Saturday 11 May, 2013

The Herald Sun has revealed that the Fair Work Commission will be allocated $20 million in Tuesday’s Federal Budget to take on the new role dealing with workplace bullying from July 1 this year.

Currently lost productivity because of bullying costs the economy about $36 billion a year.

Recently Bill Shorten, the Workplace Relations Minister, announced changes to the role of the Fair Work Commission and the intention is for the Commission to use these additional funds to resolve complaints about bullying.

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05:50 pm, Wednesday 24 April, 2013

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has rejected provisions to establish a new bullying jurisdiction. These provisions are part of the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2013, which is now before a Senate inquiry.

The bill will give effect to the federal government’s response to the report, Workplace Bullying – We just want to stop it by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Employment.

“ACCI does not support the Bill in its current form. Whilst a number of provisions could be supported in the context of other amendments which would redress the existing problems identified by industry in its current form, it is simply unbalanced,” said ACCI in its Senate inquiry submission.

“Whilst ACCI supports the majority of the Committee’s recommendations, ACCI opposes the proposals to create a new jurisdiction within the FWC (Fair Work Commission).”

“The issue is far too important to be part of the Government’s response to the Panel’s report on the operation of the Act.”

“The definition of a “worker” is derived from the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act). This is a broad definition which is not limited to the ordinary meaning of an employer and employee. The definition of a “worker” extends to contracts of service and contracts for service, as well as non-employment relationships, such as volunteers.”

“The Act (and its antecedents) has historically and predominantly been limited to dealing with industrial relations matter pertaining to the relationship between employers and employees. In a number of particular protections, this can extend to independent contractors. To extend provisions in a federal industrial relations framework to volunteers is a significant and unprecedented step in the history of IR regulation.”

The ACTU however disagrees and commended “the government for adopting the definition of worker from the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 rather than relying on the restrictive definition of employee, which would have limited the scope of the provisions to bullying occurring wholly within a traditional employment relationship.”

The Senate inquiry will report next month.

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07:18 pm, Wednesday 3 April, 2013

A new study found that almost a million of Australian workers feel their boss had discriminated against them over recent years.

According to a new study conducted by the University of Melbourne, 854,000 workers felt they were discriminated by their employer because of their gender, age, ethnicity, religion or parenting responsibilities.

Associate Professor Roger Wilkins said about 480,000 Australians believe they have experienced age discrimination in the past two years, while 270,000 felt they suffered gender discrimination.

“Many Australians feel they’ve been treated unfairly in the workplace,” said Prof Wilkins.

“Age discrimination is the most common experience, which perhaps shouldn’t be surprising given Australia’s ageing population.”

Three hundred thousand older job seekers were also reported to have experienced age discrimination.

The findings of the study are based on the experiences of approximately 13,000 respondents to the HILDA longitudinal survey of Australian households.

The report entitled Perceived Job Discrimination in Australia, will be published by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research.

Key Findings:

• Both men and woman were more likely to believe they have been discriminated against in their job if more than 70 percent of employees in their industry are of the opposite sex.
• Women with young children are more likely to report discrimination in the workplace, but not when applying for jobs.
• Perceived discrimination is higher among women, indigenous Australian, immigrants (especially those from non-Asian, non-English speaking countries), and those belonging to non-Christian religions.
• However, this seems to be because they reside in other highly discriminated against categorises (age, education, income, etc.) and not because of their ethnic or religious identity.

More information about the report is available on the University of Melbourne website.

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02:23 pm, Tuesday 19 February, 2013

The building and construction industry has expressed their concern over the bullying initiatives announced this month by Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten. Master Builders Australia is concerned the government’s bullying provisions will conflict with Codes of Practice being developed by State and Territory governments.

According to Wilhelm Harnisch, Chief Executive Officer of Master Builders Australia, the proposed amendments to the Fair Work Act will result to more confusion for employers.

“Eliminating workplace bullying is a crucial goal for the industry. But there is a concern the proposed amendments will add another layer of complexity, and will not align with the State and Territory Codes of Practice currently proposed for managing the risk of bullying,” he said.

“Ultimately this will create confusion and additional red tape for the industry. It would have been more productive to release an exposure draft of the proposed amendments to the Fair Work Act prior to making an announcement.

“Master Builders agrees entirely with Minister Shorten that bullying and harassment have no place in any Australian workplace. We hope the proposed amendments will not only cover the behaviour of employers and employees, but also third parties including officials.

Mr Harnisch said the government should release an exposure draft of the new amendments to ensure they are aligned with the proposed Codes of Practice.

“We welcome the important acknowledgment in the proposed amendment that bullying does not include reasonable management practices including performance management. We expressed strong concern over this issue in Master Builder’s submission to the parliamentary inquiry and are pleased a provision has been included,” said Mr Harnisch.

“The amendments must target genuine cases of bullying and not inadvertently facilitate vexatious and frivolous cases from disaffected employees.

“The government should release an exposure draft of the new amendments urgently, to ensure they can be practically designed and align with the State and Territory Codes of Practice prior to being introduced,” he said.

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11:24 am, Friday 21 December, 2012

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union is asking workers and the community to sign a petition asking a leading oil company to give its employers a break and to stop bullying workers.

According to a news release released by the union, labourers have been banned from using chairs and told not to sit down during their shifts.

A leaked memo, cited by the Australian Financial review says: “Labour is not allowed to sit down during normal working hours, unless their duties require. Labour is allowed to sit down during normal working hours in the approved shade huts for short rest breaks and hydration. Full crews are not allowed in the shade hut, only one at a time so work can always continue on the site.”

The memo follows reports of a $9 billion blow-out in production costs.

According to the union, workers can be docked wages from violating these procedures.

“But any worker who puts in a 12 hour shift doing manual work in 45 degree heat deserves to sit down every now and again,” said the Blue Collar Alliance of Union (AMWU, CFMEU, MUA).

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04:36 pm, Monday 26 November, 2012

Minister Bill Shorten
Photo: Ministers’ Media Centre

A parliamentary inquiry into workplace bullying urges the Federal Government to establish a national service to provide advice and assistance to workers and employers.

The inquiry also recommends a hotline service for harassed workers.

Three hundred submissions were heard, most of them from workers who have been bullied, as well as organisations.

Other recommendations include strengthening existing laws on workplace bullying and creating a clear definition of workplace bullying.

Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten who spearheaded the inquiry, says bullying is a serious safety issue among workers and he will look into the recommendations quickly.

“One thing I do know, is that workplace bullying is a real issue,” said Mr Shorten.

“Repeated unreasonable conduct which leaves people feeling disempowered and unhappy is absolutely not to be accepted. There needs to be zero tolerance for workplace bullying so I think that this parliamentary committee is getting a positive issue up on the national stage.”

ABC News reported that the Productivity Commission estimates workplace bullying to cost the country between $6 billion to $36 billion every year.

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12:59 pm, Tuesday 23 October, 2012

A 53-year-old prison officer has filed a writ in the Supreme Court and is suing the state of Victoria and the Department of Justice for what he claims is a case of severe workplace bullying.

The prison officer worked in a minimum-security prison in rural Victoria until he was disabled through injury in 2009 according to the writ.

He claims that he is suffering from a severe chronic adjustment disorder, major depression, anxiety and a sleep disorder – some of the injuries that he sustained because of repeated workplace harassment, bullying, abuse and psychological stress.

In the writ is alleged that he was subjected to aggressive and/or inappropriate behaviour, in particular from employees that supervised him and also victimized and threatened with losing his job.

The prison guard is also claiming that the state failed to take care of his safety, did not provide him with a safe work environment, proper system of work or see that there was adequate supervision, which meant that this treatment was allowed to continue from, early in 2007 to June 25^th 2009.

He is looking to have the trial by a judge only to decide any entitlement to damages, loss of earnings and earning capacity.

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02:54 pm, Wednesday 26 September, 2012

A new research on workplace bullying revealed that bosses are hesitant to discipline workers due to fear of being accused a bully.

The Herald Sun reported that Comcare told the federal parliamentary inquiry the number of “mental harm” claims lodged by federal bureaucrats have increased to 30 percent  in three years, with payouts soaring to $46 million in a year.

“Anecdotal evidence shows many managers are afraid to engage in performance management action due to fear of being labelled a bully,” says Comcare.

Experts believe that some workers are taking advantage of workplace bullying laws by making unsubstantiated claims.

Workplace law expert, Joydeep Hor told News Limited that organisations and managers are becoming “gun shy” because of fear of being accused of bullying or harassment.

“They have apprehension there will be allegations of bullying or harassment,” said Mr Hor.

“You know, ‘If something happens to me in the workplace that I don’t like I will put a label on it of it amounting to bullying,’” he said.

“As with any unfortunate labels there’s certainly a lot of that politicking that goes around.”

The new research also highlighted that one in three workers has been sworn or yelled at on the job, while 6 percent have been assaulted or threatened. Almost one in four workers has felt humiliated in front of other people.

One in five has experienced “discomfort” due to sexual jokes, one in 10 has felt unfairly treated due to their gender and one in 20 has experienced unwanted sexual advance.

The Public Service Association of South Australia wants to tone down the term bullying to “inappropriate behaviour.”

“Bullying… is a very emotive word and almost like being referred to as something akin to a paedophile,” says PSA assistant general secretary, Nev Kitchin during the inquiry.

Mr Hor believed the over-statement of workplace bullying impacts businesses’ success and safety of jobs.

“Without over-dramatising, you have anarchy, because people are allowed to get away with all sorts of inadequate behaviours, and sub-standard behaviour becomes the norm.”

“That’s hardly conducive to high productivity and business performance, which ultimately leads to less job security for the employees.”

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11:06 am, Saturday 22 September, 2012

Work Safety Commissioner, Mark McCabe, has announced on Friday that WorkSafe ACT directed the board of a community sector organisation to investigate allegations of bullying by some of its senior managers.

“A WorkSafe ACT inspector has issued an Improvement Notice directing the Board to commence an investigation into serious allegations by several of the organisation’s workers, said Commissioner McCabe.

“This is a reminder to board members and senior executives in all organisations, be they public or private sector, of their obligation to take all reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of their workers.

“The ACT’s Code of Practice for Preventing and Responding to Bullying indicates that where there are serious allegations, or allegations involving multiple workers or covering a long period of time, an investigation should be the first step taken.

“Such investigations should always be conducted by an impartial and suitably qualified person and should adhere to the principles of natural justice,” he said.

He reminded board members and senior executives that failure to act in accordance with the Code of Practice could in some occasions result in both their organisation and executives being found to be in a breach of the Territory’s health and safety laws.

“If bullying has not occurred, then a properly conducted investigation should find that,” said Commissioner McCabe. “If, on the other hand, an independent investigation substantiates the allegations, then the employer will be in a position to act to protect their workers from any ongoing threat to their health and safety.”

Commissioner McCabe said bullying has no place in all workplaces any more than it has a place in schoolyards and homes. He urges all ACT managers and workers to take a stand against bullying.

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11:47 am, Wednesday 8 August, 2012

A country-wide survey conducted by Essential Research has revealed that almost one in three young individuals have been bullied or have witnessed bullying at work.

SA Unions State Secretary, Janet Giles said the survey presented significant statistics on the rate of workplace bullying.

“Thirteen percent of people between the ages of 18 and 34 said they had been bullied at work, with another 19% having witnessed it.”

“We know from our other work with young people that they are less familiar with their rights at work, and are more often in part-time or casual work where they worry that if they speak out they will lose their jobs.”

What’s most concerning about the survey is that 65% of the bullying is reported to have come from employers or managers.”

“This figure rises to 74% for those in part-time work.”

“These are people with the power to hire and fire, increasing the likelihood that young people will feel intimidated into remaining silent.”

“We clearly need stronger national laws against bullying to stop it happening in the first place, rather than dealing with it when it has already occurred.”

Anne Purdy of the Young Workers Legal Service, said they took 450 calls during the last financial year, with a large number dealing with workplace bullying.

“We see this as a major occupational health and safety issue for young people.”

“It is a dreadful thing to happen to them in what is often their first job, and the cases we have seen reveal young people suffer depression, anxiety and are unable to work as a result.”

“We have seen some cases where this behaviour is excused as some kind of work ‘initiation’.

“But it is wrong, and it leaves young people feeling that all work involves bullying, and they become afraid to try again in another job.”

A summary of the results can be accessed through the SA Unions website.

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