Workplace Bullying

Marrickville Legal Centre employment solicitors answer your questions about your rights against bullying at work and worker’s compensation. This factsheet contains legal information. It is not legal advice. The legal information is current as of August 2026.

What is bullying at work?

Under section 789FD of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), bullying occurs when: 

• a person or a group of people behaves unreasonably and repeatedly towards a worker or a group of workers while at work, and 

• the behaviour creates a risk to health and safety. 

A risk to your health and safety can include any effects that the bullying has on your mental or physical health. Sometimes it is difficult to identify bullying behaviour in the workplace. Some examples are: 

• aggressive or intimidating conduct; 

• belittling or humiliating comments; 

• spreading malicious rumours; 

• teasing, practical jokes or ‘initiation ceremonies’; 

• exclusion from work-related activities; 

• unreasonable work expectations, including too much or too little work, or work below or beyond a worker’s skill level; 

• displaying offensive material; and 

• pressure to behave in an inappropriate manner. 

Bullying can occur between workers, or between an employer and a worker. It can also happen face-to-face, over the phone, on social media, by e-mail or SMS — including through work messaging platforms like Teams or Slack. Things that your employer can do that may be bullying include: 

• deliberately changing your schedule to inconvenience you; 

• continually overloading you with work, or not providing you with enough work to do; and/or 

• setting impossible deadlines, or continually changing the deadline.

What’s not workplace bullying?

Bullying does not include reasonable management action carried out in a reasonable manner. Your employer can: 

• give you feedback about your performance; 

• transfer, demote, discipline, counsel, retrench or dismiss you (if your employer is acting reasonably AND in accordance with your employment contract and any modern award or enterprise agreement that applies to your employment); 

• decide not to promote you; and/or 

• have occasional one-off incidents in the workplace, for example if someone loses their temper or swears. 

Some of these behaviours may feel humiliating, threatening, intimidating or demeaning, but they are not against the law. If you are unsure, you should always seek legal advice. 

What’s the difference between bullying and discrimination?

Workplace discrimination is when someone treats you differently (not just in a mean way) at work based on a protected personal characteristic, such as your gender, race, religion, whether you’re pregnant, or if you have a disability. For instance, it would be discrimination if you don’t get a promotion just because you have family or carer’s responsibilities. Bullying can also be discrimination if you have been treated less favourably because of a personal characteristic protected under anti-discrimination laws. 

Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual conduct that a reasonable person would anticipate would make you feel offended, humiliated or intimidated. Since 6 March 2023, the Fair Work Commission’s bullying jurisdiction (Part 6-4B of the FWA) has also covered sexual harassment, meaning you can apply for a ‘stop sexual harassment order’ using a similar process to a stop bullying order — with one key difference: unlike bullying, a single incident of sexual harassment can be enough to found an application; it does not need to be repeated. 

Note: employers also have a positive legal duty under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) to take proactive steps to eliminate sexual harassment, sex-based harassment and hostile work environments, enforced by the Australian Human Rights Commission since December 2023. This is separate from, but complements, the WHS duties discussed below. 

What does my employer have to do about bullying?

The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) (‘WHS Act’) sets out the duty of care your employer has to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the health and safety of workers is not put at risk from work carried out as part of the business. 

Bullying and harassment are formally recognised as psychosocial hazards under the Work Health and Safety Regulation and SafeWork NSW’s Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work. This means your employer must proactively identify, assess and control the risk of bullying — in the same way they must control physical safety risks — rather than simply responding after the fact. Employers must apply a hierarchy of controls, starting with eliminating the risk where reasonably practicable, before relying on lower-order measures such as training alone. 

The law maintains that employers must protect the health, safety and welfare of their workers. This means your employer has a duty to stop the bullying. If the bullying persists, you have the right to speak up by following the next steps discussed below.

What can I do about bullying at work?

• Check to see if your work has a workplace bullying policy. This policy may set out a process to follow, a person to report bullying incidents to, or a list of people to talk to inside and outside of the workplace. 

• If you are comfortable, raise the issue with your supervisor and/or manager, health and safety representative, or human resources department. 

• You can report the bullying to SafeWork NSW on 13 10 50 as a psychosocial hazard, particularly if you believe your employer is not managing the risk appropriately. 

• You can lodge an application with the Fair Work Commission for an order to stop bullying (or sexual harassment) at work. To find out if you are covered by the national law on bullying, visit the Fair Work Commission’s eligibility information. 

• If you are employed by the NSW Government or a local council, you may also be able to apply to the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, which since 13 October 2025 has had its own jurisdiction to make stop-bullying and stop-sexual-harassment orders for NSW public sector and local government workers, including orders for damages of up to $100,000 and orders for a public apology. 

An overview of making an application with the Fair Work Commission

• Application is lodged using Form F72 (or Form F75 for sexual harassment) — a worker lodges an application for an order to stop workplace bullying or sexual harassment. 

• Response from the employer or business — the Commission sends a copy of the application to the employer and the person(s) alleged to be engaging in the behaviour, who are given an opportunity to respond. 

• Application is dealt with by the Commission — usually by conciliation, and then a conference or hearing if unresolved, depending on the circumstances of the case. The Commission aims to discuss the case with everyone involved within 2 weeks of receiving the application, and to resolve most cases within 16 weeks. 

• Application is resolved or determined — the matter may be resolved by agreement between the parties, or the Commission may issue a decision and/or an order to stop the bullying or sexual harassment. Orders cannot require payment of money, but a breach of an order can lead to civil penalties. 

Where can I get help?

If you feel you are experiencing workplace bullying, employment solicitors at Marrickville Legal Centre can help you identify your rights around workplace bullying, sexual harassment, and worker’s compensation, and can help you work out which pathway — the Fair Work Commission, SafeWork NSW, or (if relevant) the NSW Industrial Relations Commission — is right for your situation.