Author: Kim Ramsay, Head of Marketing, GRC Solutions
Kim Ramsay is Head of Marketing at GRC Solutions, specialising in compliance education and workplace behaviour training for regulated industries across Australia and New Zealand. She works closely with legal, risk, and learning specialists to translate complex regulatory obligations into practical, effective training solutions.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimramsay
Bullying and harassment in the workplace remain serious issues for Australian organisations in 2026. These behaviours affect employee wellbeing, workplace health and safety, productivity, and organisational culture. They also expose employers to legal, financial, and reputational risk when they are not addressed effectively.
Australian regulators continue to emphasise that every worker has the right to a safe, respectful workplace. This guide explains what bullying and harassment in the workplace mean under Australian law, how they differ from reasonable management action, their impact on individuals and organisations, what to do when issues arise, and how training and governance frameworks help prevent harm.
Quick answer: What is bullying and harassment in the workplace?
Bullying and harassment in the workplace refer to unreasonable or unwelcome behaviour that makes work unsafe, intimidating, hostile, or creates a risk to health and safety.
Under the Fair Work Act 2009, workplace bullying occurs when an individual or group repeatedly behaves unreasonably towards a worker and that behaviour creates a risk to health and safety. Harassment may involve repeated or one‑off unwelcome conduct, including sexual harassment or behaviour linked to protected attributes such as age, disability, race, sex, religion, or sexual orientation under Australian discrimination laws.
Key Points on Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace
- Bullying and harassment in the workplace are serious compliance and work health and safety risks in Australia
- Workplace bullying usually involves repeated unreasonable behaviour that creates a risk to health and safety
- Harassment may include one-off or repeated unwelcome conduct — including sexual harassment and discriminatory behaviour
- Employers have obligations under the Fair Work Act, WHS legislation, and federal discrimination laws
- Workers should document incidents and follow internal reporting processes before escalating to external organisations
- Prevention relies on clear policies, leadership capability, accessible reporting systems, and regular training
Comprehensive overview
Bullying and harassment in the workplace are serious health and safety risks for Australian organisations in 2026. Workplace bullying occurs when an individual or group repeatedly behaves unreasonably towards a worker and that behaviour creates a risk to health and safety — the definition established under the Fair Work Act. Workplace harassment, including sexual harassment and harassment based on protected attributes such as race, disability, sex, or sexual orientation, may be unlawful under federal discrimination laws. Employers have a duty under work health and safety legislation to manage psychosocial hazards including bullying behaviour, and may face significant legal and financial consequences if they fail to act. Workers who experience bullying or harassment should document incidents, follow internal complaint procedures, and if unresolved, escalate to the Fair Work Commission, SafeWork regulators, or the Australian Human Rights Commission for advice and action.
Bullying and harassment in the workplace: definitions and legal meaning
What is workplace bullying under Australian law?
The Fair Work Act defines workplace bullying as repeated unreasonable behaviour by an individual or group towards a worker that creates a risk to health and safety. This definition appears in section 789FD of the Act.
Bullying behaviour does not need to be physical. It may include verbal abuse, intimidation, humiliation, isolation, or psychological pressure. Bullying can occur in person, online, during remote work, or at work‑related events.
What is workplace harassment and how is it different?
Workplace harassment involves unwelcome conduct that a reasonable person would expect to offend, humiliate, or intimidate another person. Sexual harassment includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours, or other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.
Unlike bullying, harassment does not need to be repeated and may arise from a single incident. Harassment linked to protected attributes may be unlawful under federal discrimination laws administered by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Bullying vs harassment vs discrimination vs reasonable management action
Not all workplace conflict or management action is bullying or harassment. Understanding the differences between these concepts matters — each carries distinct legal meaning and triggers different obligations for employers and workers.
Workplace Bullying
Workplace bullying involves repeated unreasonable behaviour by an individual or group towards a worker that creates a risk to health and safety. The behaviour must be repeated and must pose a genuine risk — a single unpleasant interaction generally does not meet the legal threshold under the Fair Work Act.
Workplace harassment
Workplace harassment involves unwelcome conduct that a reasonable person would expect to offend, humiliate, or intimidate. Unlike bullying, harassment does not need to be repeated — a single serious incident can constitute harassment. Where harassment is linked to a protected attribute such as sex, race, age, disability, or sexual orientation, it may also be unlawful under federal discrimination laws.
Discrimination
Discrimination occurs when a person is treated less favourably because of a protected attribute — such as age, race, sex, disability, religion, or sexual orientation. Discrimination in employment is unlawful under federal and state legislation and may be addressed through the Australian Human Rights Commission or relevant state tribunals. Discriminatory conduct can overlap with harassment but is assessed under a separate legal framework.
Reasonable management action
Reasonable management action carried out in a reasonable way is not bullying. This includes lawful performance management, allocating work, setting deadlines, providing feedback, or taking disciplinary action. The key test is whether the action was reasonable in the circumstances and delivered in a reasonable manner.
If management action is delivered aggressively, unfairly, or in a humiliating way — and creates a risk to health or psychological injury — it may still constitute workplace bullying regardless of the employer’s intent.
Expert insight: Safe Work Australia recognises workplace bullying as a psychosocial hazard that must be managed like any other workplace safety risk: “Bullying is not a once off occurrence. The behaviour is repeated, unreasonable and habitual.”
Examples of bullying and harassment at work
Common examples of workplace bullying behaviour
• Verbal abuse, yelling, swearing, or aggressive conduct
• Repeatedly belittling or humiliating a worker
• Social exclusion or isolating individuals or groups
• Spreading rumours or gossip
• Undermining work performance or deliberately withholding information
• Repeated unreasonable workloads or deadlines
Common examples of workplace harassment
• Unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favours
• Sexual jokes, comments, or gestures
• Unwelcome conduct linked to protected attributes such as race, age, disability, or gender
Behaviours that may be unlawful or reportable
Some bullying behaviour crosses from a work health and safety issue into a potential criminal offence or unlawful act under federal discrimination laws. Conduct that is physically threatening or violent, involves unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favours, targets a person based on a protected attribute such as disability, race, sexual orientation, or gender identity, or constitutes other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature may be unlawful regardless of whether it is repeated.
Serious incidents — including those resulting in psychological injury — may trigger mandatory reporting obligations under state and territory work health and safety legislation. Organisations should not attempt to manage potentially criminal conduct through internal processes alone. Where criminal behaviour is suspected, seek independent legal advice before proceeding. Legal Aid NSW provides free legal advice to employees on employment matters including workplace bullying and sexual harassment.
It is also important to note that national anti-bullying laws operate alongside, not instead of, discrimination law and WHS obligations. A worker experiencing bullying or harassment may have grounds to act under more than one legal framework simultaneously. Work health and safety regulators, the Fair Work Commission, and the Australian Human Rights Commission each deal with different but overlapping circumstances — understanding which body to approach and when is an important part of seeking the right advice.
How bullying and harassment affect employees and organisations
Mental health, psychological injury, and workplace safety risks
Safe Work Australia classifies workplace bullying as a psychosocial hazard. Impacts may include anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, reduced confidence, and long‑term psychological injury. Physical symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, and gastrointestinal problems are also common.
Productivity, turnover, culture, and compliance impacts
Bullying and harassment contribute to absenteeism, turnover, workers compensation claims, and legal costs. Evidence presented to Australian parliamentary inquiries estimates the economic impact to be in the billions of dollars each year. Organisations that fail to address bullying risk damage to culture, reputation, and regulatory standing.
How to prevent bullying and harassment in the workplace
Build clear policies and reporting pathways
Workplaces should maintain clear bullying and harassment policies that define unacceptable behaviour, reporting processes, investigation steps, and consequences. Policies should be reviewed regularly and acknowledged by all staff.
Train managers and employees regularly
Training helps employees recognise inappropriate behaviour, understand reasonable management action, and intervene early. Manager‑specific training is critical to effective prevention.
Support early intervention and fair investigations
Employers should respond promptly and confidentially to concerns. Early intervention reduces harm and supports fair outcomes.
Use compliance training to reinforce expected behaviours
Regular compliance training is one of the most practical tools available to prevent bullying and harassment across an organisation. It ensures employees at every level — including managers, workers, and people involved in health and safety roles — understand what constitutes unacceptable behaviour, what their obligations are under the Fair Work Act and WHS legislation, and how to respond appropriately when issues arise.
For managers, training builds the confidence to address low-level concerns early — before patterns of bullying behaviour become entrenched. For employees, it reduces uncertainty about what is reasonable management action versus conduct that creates a risk to health and safety. For health and safety representatives, it clarifies when and how to escalate concerns within the organisation.
Documented training programs also support the organisation’s legal position. Regulators and courts assess whether employers took all reasonable steps to prevent harm. A consistent training record across all staff levels — not just induction content — is the clearest evidence that an organisation took its work health and safety obligations seriously.
Employers should also consider supporting affected workers through Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and ensuring that confidential reporting mechanisms, such as anonymous hotlines, are available and clearly communicated. Explore compliance training courses for Australian workplaces to find solutions suited to your industry and organisation size.
What to do if bullying or harassment happens at work
What employees should do first
• Keep detailed records of incidents
• Review workplace policies and procedures
• Raise concerns internally with a manager, HR, or safety representative
• Seek advice where needed
What managers and HR should do next
When a concern about bullying or harassment is raised — whether formally through a complaint or informally through a conversation — managers and the human resources department have a duty to respond promptly. Delayed responses increase the risk of psychological injury to the people involved and can compound an organisation’s legal exposure under work health and safety and employment law.
Initial steps should include:
- Assessing the immediate risk to health and safety and taking any necessary protective action
- Acknowledging receipt of the concern and explaining what the process will involve
- Maintaining strict confidentiality to protect all parties and avoid prejudging outcomes
- Deciding whether informal resolution — such as a facilitated conversation or management coaching — or a formal investigation is appropriate given the severity of the behaviour and the circumstances
- Applying consistent disciplinary measures across all staff levels if the investigation finds misconduct — inconsistency undermines organisational credibility and increases legal risk
- Documenting all decisions and actions taken at each stage
Managers should not investigate complaints about their own conduct or the conduct of close colleagues. In these circumstances, the human resources department or an independent investigator should take the lead. Where there is any doubt about the appropriate response — particularly where the conduct may constitute a criminal offence or breach of federal discrimination laws — seek legal advice on workplace bullying before proceeding.
Organisations should also ensure support services such as Employee Assistance Programs are made available to affected workers throughout the process, regardless of the outcome.
When to escalate to Fair Work, Safe Work, or legal support
Workers may apply to the Fair Work Commission for stop bullying orders, contact SafeWork regulators for WHS breaches, or lodge complaints with the Australian Human Rights Commission for harassment or discrimination.
Employer responsibilities for bullying and harassment in Australia
Fair Work, WHS, and anti‑discrimination obligations
Australian employers carry significant legal obligations to prevent and address bullying and harassment in the workplace. These obligations arise across three overlapping areas of law — the Fair Work Act, work health and safety legislation, and federal and state anti-discrimination law — and require active, ongoing management rather than a policy document that sits unused.
The costs of failing to act are significant. Workplace bullying is estimated to cost the Australian economy between $6 billion and $36 billion annually, factoring in reduced productivity, high employee turnover, absenteeism, and legal and workers compensation costs. Organisations that tolerate bullying behaviour face not only those operational and financial risks but also regulatory action and reputational damage.
Under the Fair Work Act 2009, national anti-bullying laws allow workers who have been bullied to apply to the Fair Work Commission — also known as the national workplace relations tribunal — for an order to stop the bullying. The Commission can investigate complaints and issue legally binding orders. The Fair Work Commission also provides free legal advice about general protections and bullying rights for eligible workers, and the Fair Work Ombudsman provides information and advice about workplace laws, rights, and obligations more broadly.
Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and its state and territory equivalents, employers have a primary duty of care to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of workers so far as is reasonably practicable. This includes managing psychosocial hazards — of which workplace bullying is one — and responding to reports from health and safety representatives. Safe Work Australia’s code of practice on preventing and responding to workplace bullying provides practical guidance on how to meet this duty, and SafeWork regulators in each state and territory can provide advice on raising issues of bullying and harassment at work.
Federal discrimination laws create further employer obligations. Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours, and other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment under the Sex Discrimination Act. The Australian Human Rights Commission accepts complaints about workplace harassment and discrimination covered by federal discrimination laws, and provides guidance to employers on their obligations. Harassment linked to protected attributes such as age, race, disability, or sexual orientation is also unlawful under the Age Discrimination Act, Disability Discrimination Act, and Racial Discrimination Act. Employers can be held vicariously liable for the unlawful conduct of their employees unless they can demonstrate they took all reasonable steps to prevent it.
Employers also have a common law duty to take reasonable care for the health and safety of their employees. This duty may be breached where bullying or harassment occurs and the employer failed to act.
Why policy, training, and reporting systems matter
A written policy alone does not fulfil an employer’s obligations under the Fair Work Act or WHS legislation. Regulators and courts assess whether organisations have put their policies into practice — and the clearest evidence of that is regular training across all staff levels, accessible and confidential reporting mechanisms, and documented responses to complaints.
Effective systems serve three purposes. They prevent harm by setting clear expectations, building early intervention capability, and ensuring workers know how to report concerns and access support. They reduce legal exposure by demonstrating that reasonable steps were taken. And they support early identification and resolution of issues before they escalate into formal complaints, litigation, or workers compensation claims.
Organisations without functioning systems — where policies exist on paper but are not communicated, reinforced, or acted upon — are at significantly greater risk of regulatory action and reputational damage when incidents occur. Specialised compliance training for specific workforce contexts, such as workplace behaviours training for local government, can help organisations meet their obligations in a way that is relevant and practical for their people.
FAQs about bullying and harassment in the workplace
What is considered bullying in the workplace?
Workplace bullying is repeated unreasonable behaviour towards a worker or group of workers that creates a risk to health and safety. It can take different forms — verbal abuse, intimidation, social exclusion, work-related sabotage, or deliberately undermining a person’s effective work performance. Bullying does not need to be intentional and is assessed objectively based on the behaviour and its impact on the person targeted.
Is harassment the same as bullying?
No. Harassment involves unwelcome conduct that a reasonable person would expect to offend, humiliate, or intimidate — and unlike bullying, it does not need to be repeated. Harassment often involves unwelcome conduct linked to a protected attribute such as sex, race, age, disability, or sexual orientation and may be unlawful under federal discrimination laws. Both can occur in the same workplace interaction but are assessed under different legal frameworks.
Can one incident be harassment but not bullying?
Yes. Harassment can arise from a single incident, particularly where the conduct is sufficiently serious — for example, an unwelcome sexual advance or other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature. Workplace bullying under the Fair Work Act generally requires repeated unreasonable behaviour, though a single serious incident may still create a risk to health and safety and require employer action under WHS obligations.
What is reasonable management action?
Reasonable management action includes lawful performance management, setting workload expectations, providing feedback, and taking disciplinary action, provided these are carried out in a reasonable way. Reasonable management action is not bullying, even if the worker finds it uncomfortable. However, management action delivered aggressively, humiliatingly, or disproportionately — particularly where it results in psychological injury — may cross into bullying or harassment territory and create a risk under the Fair Work Act.
What should I do if I am being bullied at work?
Keep a record of all incidents — note dates, times, what was said or done, and any witnesses present. Review your organisation’s bullying and harassment policy to understand the reporting process. Raise your concerns with a manager, HR representative, or health and safety representative. If the behaviour continues or is not resolved internally, you may apply to the Fair Work Commission for an order to stop bullying, or seek free legal advice from Legal Aid before taking further action.
Can I report workplace bullying anonymously?
Some organisations offer confidential reporting mechanisms such as anonymous hotlines or third-party reporting platforms. Anonymous reports can still trigger an employer’s obligation to assess risk to health and safety, but may limit the scope of any formal investigation. Check your organisation’s policy to understand what reporting options are available. You can also report bullying to SafeWork NSW if the conduct involves a breach of work health and safety laws.
When should employers investigate a complaint?
Employers should initiate an investigation — or at minimum a risk assessment — promptly when a complaint involves a risk to health and safety, a potential breach of WHS or discrimination law, ongoing harm to an individual, or behaviour that is creating a hostile work environment. Responding quickly to incidents of bullying can help mitigate their impact and demonstrates the organisation is meeting its duty of care. Delay increases legal exposure and causes further harm to the people involved.
What training helps prevent bullying and harassment?
Effective training covers workplace behaviour expectations, what constitutes bullying and harassment under Australian law, the difference between bullying and reasonable management action, how to report concerns, and how managers should respond when issues are raised. Regular training — not just one-off induction content — is what regulators and courts look for as evidence of an employer’s reasonable steps to prevent harm. Explore our compliance training courses to find workplace behaviour training suited to your organisation and industry.
Explore GRC’s Workplace Compliance Resources: Build a safer, more compliant workplace
Bullying and harassment are preventable risks. With clear policies, capable leaders, effective reporting systems, and regular training, organisations can protect workers, reduce legal exposure, and strengthen their compliance posture.
Explore workplace behaviour training for Australian organisations
GRC Solutions offers bullying and harassment training tailored to regulated industries and specific workplace contexts across Australia and New Zealand. Our compliance learning solutions cover workplace behaviour, psychological safety, and management capability — delivered through the Salt™ LMS platform.
- Workplace Behaviours Training Australia
- Workplace Behaviours for Local Government Training Australia
- Workplace Behaviours for Schools Training Australia
- Mental Health in the Workplace Training
- Workplace Aggression Training Global
Contact us to discuss your organisation’s compliance training requirements.