Australia’s national industrial tribunal has cleared public service bosses of bullying, ruling that what one employee perceived as bullying was part of ordinary performance management.
At the start of 2014, new anti-bullying measures were brought in by the Labor government, led by the prime minister, Tony Abbott, to provide Australia’s Fair Work Commission with greater muscle to prevent bullying at work. One of the first cases to come before the commission under the new rules was a complaint from an employee in the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The employee said his boss was using the bureau’s performance management system to bully and force him out of his job.
The employee, who has not been named, gave evidence of “hurtful remarks” and constant intimidation. The employee said the way he was spoken to was humiliating and alleged that his manager had fabricated performance issues. He said his treatment had affected every aspect of his life and his health.
But the commission judged that the bureau was simply using “management prerogative” to try to get the staff member to improve his performance. Although it accepted that the employee honestly felt that managers were motivated by a desire to get rid of him, it judged that there was no evidence of that and refused to grant an anti-bullying order.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the case has attracted the attention of employment lawyers around the country. The paper says the case was the first major test of the government’s “much-vaunted” anti-bullying laws in Australia’s public sector, where, as in the UK, questions have been raised over how to manage poor performers.
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