Australian Government - Comcare

Workplace Bullying

While workplace bullying is commonly viewed as a HR issue, it is also a workplace hazard.

Bullying can constitute a significant risk to the health, safety and wellbeing of a person and lead to serious psychological injury. Bullying also has substantial costs to the organisation including an adverse impact on client service, workplace and team relations, and productivity.

Employers’ responsibility

Under the OHS Act, employers are responsible to systematically address the risks of workplace bullying in their workplace. This includes applying a risk management process to identify and control incidents of workplace bullying.
 
The OHS Code of Practice 2008 (part 1 Risk Management) provides more information on developing and implementing systematic risk management processes in the workplace.

Notification of workplace bullying

Employers are responsible for notifying Comcare about workplace bullying incidents. The notifiable incidents flow chart [pdf] describes how incidents should be notified to Comcare.

Workplace bullying campaign

As part of Comcare’s commitment to achieving Australia’s safest workplaces, a workplace bullying campaign is currently underway with organisations in the Comcare Scheme.

More information

For more information about workplace bullying:


Page last updated:August 1, 2008