Language of the Law as a Workplace Bully Prevention Measure

by Nov 5, 2015

Employers may exert the proper authority they want upon their employees, especially when workplace civility is in need. However, Australia’s Fair Work Act 2009 serves as a caveat, for it defined the statutory meaning of ‘bullying’.

Jurisprudence by the Australian Fair Work Commission had set the guidelines in classifying the ‘unreasonable behavior’ into less obvious examples. Accordingly, such decision set a landmark rule which settles all the loopholes perpetrated by violators of the Fair Work Act 2009.

According to previous rulings the FWC have laid down the behaviors found to be unreasonable. It includes delaying administrative work, rude and hostile manner of communication, making a client out of an employee by including them to the debt collecting services, listening to employees’ conversations and asking about its content, non-acknowledgement, failure to inform, and even mere ‘unfriending’ in social media, or any showing of lack of civility at work.

Sec. 78 FD of the Fair Work Act, as defined in Work Health and Safety Act 2011, the criteria which define workplace bullying are: repeated unreasonable behavior, such behavior puts a risk to health and safety, and the work must be in a constitutionally covered workplace.

The term ‘repeated’ may be construed to refer to a range of behavior over time which includes sarcasm, bad faith, isolating, freezing out, belittling, and innuendo. Meanwhile, ‘risk to health and safety’ construes as suffering physically or from depression, anxiety, or if the offended was required a medical or psychological treatment.

Nevertheless, one can eliminate bullying through workplace bully trainings, civility consulting, worker feedbacks, and incident reports.

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Do you know how much money chronically bad behavior costs your company? Spoiler alert – it’s a LOT higher than you want it to be. Download our data and worksheet to see how it’s costing your organization and what you can do to fix it.

 

Catherine

About Catherine Mattice

Catherine Mattice, MA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is the founder/CEO of Civility Partners, an organizational development firm focused on helping organizations create respectful workplace cultures and specializing in turning around toxic cultures. Civility Partners’ clients range from Fortune 500’s to small businesses across many industries. Catherine is a TEDx speaker and an HR thought-leader who has appeared in such venues as USA Today, Bloomberg, CNN, NPR, and many other national news outlets as an expert. She’s an award-winning speaker, author and blogger, and has 50+ courses reaching global audiences on LinkedIn Learning. Catherine’s award-winning book, BACK OFF! Your Kick-Ass Guide to Ending Bullying at Work, was hailed by international leadership-guru, Ken Blanchard, as, “the most comprehensive and valuable handbook on the topic.” Her latest book is Navigating Toxic Work Environments For Dummies (Wiley).

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