Fair Work Commission Releases First Anti-Bullying Report
Thursday 22 May 2014 @ 12.24 p.m. | Industrial Law
The Fair Work Commission has published the first Quarterly Report in relation to the new anti-bullying jurisdiction, which came into effect on 1 January 2014.
Background to the Law
The new federal anti-bullying laws – which are a complement to existing work health and safety and anti-discrimination laws, along with adverse action provisions in the Fair Work Act 2009(Cth) allow workers to bring a claim in the Fair Work Commission. The commission can order the bullying to stop, but it cannot award compensation.
The Quarterly Report
The Fair Work Commission had prepared itself to receive 3,500 anti-bullying applications per year, around 67 per week. According to the report, only 151 applications were lodged in the first 3 months - an average of about 11 applications per week.
All applications had processes to deal with the matters undertaken within the required 14-day time period, with the majority on the date they were received. A significant proportion of matters were finalised without requiring the Commission to determine whether or not to make an order to stop bullying at work including:
- 23 matters withdrawn early in the process
- 16 resolved during proceedings
- 5 applications withdrawn prior to listed proceedings
- 4 applications withdrawn after proceedings but before a decision.
The majority of the applications were from the Clerical Services Industry (23) with the next highest number of applications being from Retail Industry (13); Health and Welfare Services (11) and Education Services (10).
According to the Parliament of Australia website,
"The FWC noted that the anti-bullying regime:
…operates prospectively and is directed at preventing the worker being bullied at work. The Commission is specifically precluded from making an order requiring the payment of a pecuniary amount, hence it cannot make an order requiring a respondent to pay an amount of compensation to an applicant. The legislative scheme is not directed at punishing past bullying behaviour or compensating the victims of such behaviour. It is directed at stopping future bullying behaviour. (emphasis added)."
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