Fair Work Reforms on Bullying expected to Spike Case Load

The Financial Review reported yesterday (12 June 2013) that: "employers will face a radically different legal landscape when it comes to bullying complaints next year". The Financial Review report follows on the revalation by the Fair Work Commission last week that it is looking to handle a large number of new bullying claims (some 3500 a year) under foreshadowed legislative reforms. Those reforms are contained in the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2013 (see previous post) introduced into the Australian Parliament on 21 March 2013. The Bill outlines a new role for the Fair Work Commission giving it the power to deal with workplace bullying.

Critics of the reforms predict a growth in “reverse bullying” a term used to refer to a position where staff target employers for imposing legitimate performance management while supporters say the changes are a much-needed to help resolve a growing problem and will be in everyone’s interests when implemented.

As a general description of it the Bill proposes that a worker, or group of workers, who reasonably believe they are being bullied at work may make an application to the Fair Work Commission for an order to prevent the bullying.

The amendments with respect to bullying proposed by the Bill were supported by the majority of Senators on the Senate's Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations’ in their report into the Bill which was released on 14 May 2013.

In the last week the Bill, which includes the bullying changes, passed through the House of Representatives even  though the coalition had proposed changes, amongst which was the notion that workers first go through the workplace health and safety regulators to sort out bullying complaints before taking matters to the Fair Work Commission. However, these changes were rejected and the coalition did not insist on them allowing the Bill to pass. The expectation is that the Bill will pass through the Senate by 27 June 2013 at the latest, and take effect from January 2014. However, to do so will require support from the Greens.

The Financial Review report quotes lawyers and experts on either side of the bullying question.  With those against the reform saying that:

:...a better system would be where a complaint could only come before the commission once a regulator was satisfied that the employee had complied with all internal grievance procedure and policies and that the employer had failed in its responsibilities to deal with the complaint." ... "the best solution to stem the tide of bullying complaints would be to bolster the resilience of employees and to upskill management".

While those supporting the reform say:

“[The bill] will improve productivity, improve harmony, reduce potential ­liability for psychiatric injury and provide much-needed protection for employees,” ... challenging  the views critics saying ... “It’s a harsh thing to say. We’ve just had a parliamentary inquiry that found [in November] bullying has had a devastating impact on employees – from people being unable to work to the very extreme [example] of suicide.”

It will be interesting to see what the results are once the legislation is passed and whether it leads to an explosion of actions as the critics fear or whether it provides redress and a solution to the problem as the supporters argue.

Sources

• Employers fear rise in ‘reverse bullying’ (Financial Review)

• Senate Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations

• Fair Work Commission Site

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