A senior member of the Fair Work Commission has told employers they need strong workplace conduct policies and grievance procedures and should select line managers with good interpersonal skills, to help them prevent bullying claims.
Retail and hospitality workers who are sexually harassed by customers at work might not feel they are able to report and deal with the abuse, according to university research.
NSW Public Service Commissioner Graeme Head is seeking to determine why 30% of NSW public sector employees report being bullied in the workplace and almost 50% say they have witnessed it, despite the implementation of a wide range of prevention and management measures.
A Fair Work Commission full bench majority has urged DP World to address an "anti-dobbing" culture that contributed to its failure to curb a supervisor's bullying behaviour, in a decision upholding the company's dismissal of a subordinate he goaded into assaulting him.
Recognising that people who spend their working lives "bearing witness to the trauma and pain of others" rarely remain unaffected, plaintiff law firm Maurice Blackburn has taken steps to address vicarious trauma in its own workplace, according to principal Josh Bornstein.
Australia's national science agency, the CSIRO, has received a mixed report card from an independent investigation into allegations of workplace bullying, which found that while the organisation's work culture wasn't "toxic", its policies had encouraged a "blame the victim" approach.