Employment and Migration Blog

How workplace bullying can effect your business: orkplace bullying can have detrimental consequences on a person and an organisation. An recent article by Lollie Barr has found that collectively the cost of bullying to Australian businesses is on average $9.5 billion per year, resulting in decreased productivity, increased levels of absenteeism, staff turnover, poor morale and in some circumstances suicide.

Since a decision last year by the High Court which clarified the approach courts should adopt when determining whether adverse action had be taken against an employee for a prohibited reason the Fair Work Commission (FWC) has seen a rise in the number of application's for a General Protection claim.

Providing a safe work environment – are you addressing your bullying complaints? Following on from my previous blog where I emphasised the importance of employers managing employee relationships, a case has emerged in Queensland in which an employer who turned a blind eye to workplace bullying was found to be negligent of providing a safe work environment. Ms Wolters had been verbally abused and threatened by another employee, Mr Bradley, and as a result suffered severe depression and was unable to return to work.