Narrator:
Commissioner Hampton, Anti-bullying Panel Head:
The nature of our jurisdiction is preventative—we can’t make orders for compensation we don’t make orders declaring people guilty of any offence. What we do is we make orders to prevent further bullying conduct in workplaces. What its effectively designed to do is perhaps unlike many of those other options that still remain available is to deal directly with the alleged bullying behaviour before it actually escalates and leads to the conclusion of the employment relationship.
Narrator:
Workplace bullying can describe a range of behaviours.
Jennifer Anderson, Anti-bullying Team Manager:
Bullying under the Fair Work Act is repeated unreasonable behaviour. So its behaviour that has to have occurred more than once and it’s unreasonable. So it’s going to be something that’s unreasonable in the context of the workplace.
Commissioner Hampton, Anti-bullying Panel Head:
These are often emotional and difficult matters both for applicants and for individuals who are on the other end of the application so again they create challenges for the Commission and we’ve tried to both provide training and processes deal with all of that.
Jennifer Anderson, Anti-bullying Team Manager:
We didn’t really know what to expect so that has been the first hurdle to get over is settling in to what the jurisdiction is actually about. What we’ve found is that we’ve received pretty consistent numbers of applications each month.
The case management team deals with an application as soon as it’s been lodged up until it’s allocated to either a staff mediator or a member of the Commission to deal with the application.
We contact the applicant in the matter—so the worker who has lodged their application—and talk to them about the application that they’ve made; raise any issues of concern if they have indicated that there is some sort of imminent risk at the workplace or if they’ve indicated that they’ve got concerns around self-harm or other serious issues. We have that initial discussion with the applicant and then we have that same conversation with their employer. We usually do that on the same day as the application has been lodged so we deal with them very quickly.
Commissioner Hampton, Anti-bullying Panel Head:
What will then happen is the matter will be consolidated in a report—that is the staff of the Commission will make a report—and the person acting as the panel head will then make a decision as to how, when and where the application will be progressed by the Commission.
Unlike the unfair dismissal jurisdiction not all matters are subject to conciliation or mediation. We use conciliation or mediation when it’s appropriate and that is a decision that’s made having regard to the nature and circumstances of the parties, the nature of the alleged bullying conduct and any response that’s been provided to that.
The earlier they are resolved, the more informally they are resolved the more there is a resolution which if not initiated in the workplace but involves the direct workplace participants the more likely it is that there will be a proper resolution which ensures an ongoing employment or contractual relationship.
Narrator:
The new jurisdiction raised a number of challenges for the Commission.
Commissioner Hampton, Anti-bullying Panel Head:
Because we are dealing with multiple parties in an application they are often unrepresented, so in that context the Commission has to establish its processes and its approaches around the fact that unlike most matters the Commission deals with there are not two parties, there can be many parties. In fact, some applications name multiple individuals so you might have say up to a dozen in a more extreme case.
Jennifer Anderson, Anti-bullying Team Manager:
We put a lot of effort into the setting up an establishment process. So making sure that we were prepared was a really critical part of then how the team has been able to proceed since the commencement of the jurisdiction.
Commissioner Hampton, Anti-bullying Panel Head:
We were also assisted in that regard by the consultation we undertook with the parties or representatives of the major parties in particular the trade union movement and the employer community and a number of psychologists and other professionals operating in this area.
Jennifer Anderson, Anti-bullying Team Manager:
Because we are often dealing with parties on both sides who can be in fairly fraught situations—we can be dealing with people who are often distressed. So the personal contact that we have and the processes that we go through whilst they are labour intensive—are also critical to the success of the process so far.