Workplace Bullying Claims Have Decreased Since the Harmonised Work Health and Safety Act 2011
This Snapshot provides a retrospective confirmation that workplace bullying-related worker’s compensation claims have decreased since 2011, which has resulted in overall claims for physical and psychological work health and safety (WHS) injury to decline since 2011.
All WHS Claims include All mental stress claims, which include workplace bullying claims. Workplace bullying claims do not include claims for management action such as recruitment, performance management and termination. However, all mental health claims consist of a majority of workplace bullying-related claims like discrimination, sexual harassment, work environment pressure and violence, as well as specific bullying figures.
These figures would indicate the success of the harmonised Work Health and Safety Act 2011 in reducing workers’ compensation claims, including mental stress claims for workplace bullying-related injuries. Unfortunately, these figures were unavailable for the Commonwealth Parliament, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Employment “Workplace bullying: we just want it to stop” enquiry report in 2012. This enquiry recommended changes to workplace bullying law and policy without knowing the positive results of the then recent Work Health and Safety Act 2011 changes.
This data is historical, and we won’t know what is happening right now until new data is released in about three or four years. The unreasonable time delay in releasing these workers’ compensation claim statistics hides the true nature of the current workplace bullying problem. These statistics must be released more often and more quickly to monitor the progress of government workplace bullying interventions in a timely way.
Kevin Gilmore-Burrell LLB MBA
© Empathyse ® Anti-bullying Consulting 2018
Creating Positive Workplaces