Bullying or not, whatever way you look at it, it’s costing you

When a bullying complaint is made to the Fair Work Commission they have to consider whether the behaviour has been repeated, unreasonable and at work prior to issuing a Stop Bullying Order.

Late last year a full bench of the Fair Work Commission upheld the decision in Hammon v Metricon Homes Pty Ltd t/as Metricon Homes not to make an anti-bullying order because the conduct, although by a group of workers, was not repeated.

In this case, it did in fact consist of a number of incidents, however the Commissioner held that the conduct was not repeated and the co-workers were not acting together.   Hammon, the building site manager made numerous allegations of bullying based on a number on incidents of alleged unreasonable behaviour by another employee and specific incidents were described.

Although the incidents did occur at work and were not reasonable management action carried out in a reasonable manner, it was found there was no repetition so no basis for a bullying finding.  Each of the co-workers involved in the incidents were separate incidents and therefore was not satisfied that the co-workers were acting together to harm the applicant.

The outcome of the decision therefore shows that where more than one worker is alleged to engage in bullying conduct, the FWC needs to be satisfied they are acting together repeatedly if it going to make a stop bullying order.

I don’t think businesses should be looking at this thinking ‘good’, ‘glad they are making it harder for employees’ or similar because whatever way you look at it, it is costing you money.   If an employee if feeling bullied, whether it is bullying as the law defines it or not, you are not going to get maximum performance and productivity out of them.  I would also go onto say that it would suggest that workplace culture is not great nor is leadership and these are two very important components in the workplace to maximise performance and productivity.