Tackling Workplace Harassment and Bullying in Australia: Legal Insights

Workplace harassment and bullying can derail culture, harm wellbeing and damage productivity. If you’re running a business in Australia, you have clear legal duties to prevent and respond to these behaviours - and the good news is there are practical steps you can take right now to protect your people and your business.

In this guide, we unpack what bullying and harassment look like in practice, how the Australian legal framework works (and the differences between the key regulators), and the practical policies, processes and documents you should have in place. We’ll also cover options for employees and the right way to handle complaints and investigations.

Our aim is to help you create a fair, safe and respectful workplace - and stay compliant while you do it.

What Counts As Workplace Bullying or Harassment?

Bullying generally involves repeated, unreasonable behaviour that creates a risk to health and safety. This might include insults, spreading rumours, aggressive or intimidating conduct, or deliberately excluding someone from work activities.

Harassment refers to unwanted conduct that offends, humiliates or intimidates someone. It can be verbal, physical or psychological. Sexual harassment is a specific form of unlawful conduct and - importantly - can occur through a single incident; it does not need to be repeated to be unlawful.

Reasonable Management Action Isn’t Bullying

Fair and reasonable management action carried out in a reasonable way isn’t bullying. For example, giving constructive feedback, setting performance goals, issuing a lawful and reasonable direction, or commencing a fair performance management process are not bullying if handled appropriately.

Psychosocial Hazards Matter

Bullying and harassment are psychosocial hazards that can harm mental health. Under work health and safety duties, you’re expected to identify, assess and control these risks (just as you would physical hazards) and to uphold your duty of care as an employer.

The Legal Framework In Australia

Several laws work together to prevent and address workplace bullying and harassment. Knowing who does what will help you respond correctly.

• Fair Work Commission (FWC): The FWC hears applications for “stop bullying” orders when a worker is being bullied at work and there’s a risk it will continue. The FWC also has a “stop sexual harassment” jurisdiction.
• Work Health and Safety (WHS) Laws: In each state/territory, WHS laws require you to provide a safe workplace. That includes controlling psychosocial hazards such as bullying and harassment.
• Sex Discrimination Act and Respect@Work Reforms: Sexual harassment and certain hostile workplace environments are unlawful. Employers have a positive duty to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate unlawful sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, as far as possible.
• State and Territory Anti‑Discrimination Laws: These prohibit harassment and discrimination on protected attributes and provide complaint pathways through local commissions.
• Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth): Beyond stop orders, adverse action and dismissal claims can arise if bullying or harassment leads to disciplinary action or resignation.

Practically, this means you need to prevent harm (WHS and positive duty obligations) and be ready to respond properly if an issue arises (FWC and anti‑discrimination processes). It also means your internal processes and documents should reflect these legal settings.

Practical Steps For Employers: Prevent, Respond, Support

The most effective approach combines prevention, strong internal processes and timely support. Here are the core building blocks.

1) Set Clear Standards With Policies and Contracts

Spell out acceptable conduct, reporting avenues and consequences for breaches. This usually includes a respectful workplace policy (bullying, harassment and discrimination), a complaints procedure, and related policies such as social media, grievance and WHS.

Back this up with the right contracts. An Employment Contract should reference your policies and set out conduct expectations, confidentiality and lawful directions. Tailor policies to your operations and circulate them to all workers (including contractors).

If you’re starting from scratch or refreshing older documents, consider having a suite of Workplace Policies drafted and rolled out with an acknowledgment process so everyone knows what applies and agrees to follow it.

2) Train Your Team (Leaders and Staff)

Regular training helps people recognise bullying and harassment early, understand bystander responsibilities and know how to report concerns. Leaders should receive additional training on reasonable management action, giving feedback, and running fair processes.

Include practical scenarios. For example, how to handle a complaint raised informally at a toolbox talk, or what to do if a client harasses a staff member.

3) Manage Psychosocial Risks Like Any Other WHS Risk

• Identify risks: workload issues, poor role clarity, conflict, isolated work, or poor change management.
• Control risks: improve rostering, clarify roles, review KPIs, refresh training and supervision, and promote safe reporting channels.
• Monitor and review: use pulse checks and surveys to assess culture and act on trends.

Supporting mental health is part of this picture. Align your practices with your obligations around staff wellbeing and Fair Work mental health obligations.

4) Offer Safe, Trusted Reporting Options

Provide multiple pathways to report concerns - a line manager, HR, a senior leader, and an anonymous option where possible. For some businesses, a confidential reporting hotline and a Whistleblower Policy make sense, especially where misconduct or third‑party harassment is a risk.

5) Act Promptly and Keep Good Records

Once you’re on notice of a concern, take timely, proportionate steps. Acknowledge the complaint, plan next steps and maintain confidentiality as far as reasonably possible. Keep clear records of what you did and why - good documentation shows you took reasonable steps (which matters for WHS, anti‑discrimination and vicarious liability risks).

Handling Complaints and Investigations Fairly

A fair process protects everyone and reduces legal risk. Here’s a practical workflow you can adapt to your business size and risk profile.

Initial Triage

• Clarify the concern and outcomes sought (e.g. stop behaviour, move teams, formal investigation).
• Assess risk and consider interim measures (like temporary separation of parties, adjusted duties or, in some cases, suspension pending investigation).

Choose the Right Pathway

• Informal resolution: conversations, coaching and agreed behaviour changes (suitable for lower-level, first-time issues).
• Formal investigation: appoint an impartial investigator, set terms of reference, gather evidence and interview parties and witnesses.

Natural Justice and Confidentiality

• Tell the respondent the allegations in sufficient detail and provide a fair opportunity to respond (in writing and/or interview).
• Avoid pre‑judgment. Keep an open mind and test competing evidence.
• Limit information on a “need to know” basis to protect privacy and safety.

Findings, Outcomes and Communication

• Make findings on the balance of probabilities and link them to your policies and standards.
• Where allegations are substantiated, consider proportionate outcomes (training, warnings, transfer or termination). If disciplinary action is on the table, issue clear correspondence - in some cases a show cause letter is appropriate before deciding outcomes.
• Provide appropriate feedback to the complainant and respondent, and monitor the work environment afterwards to prevent reprisals or recurrence.

Support People Involved

Offer EAP or counselling, flexible working adjustments, and check‑ins. Support is part of a trauma‑informed approach and aligns with your WHS obligations.

Employee Options and Legal Remedies

If bullying or harassment occurs, employees (and other “workers” like contractors) have several options depending on what’s happening and what outcome they want.

• Internal complaint: Use workplace reporting channels for informal or formal resolution.
• FWC stop orders: Apply to the FWC for a “stop bullying” or “stop sexual harassment” order to prevent future conduct.
• Anti‑discrimination complaints: Lodge with the Australian Human Rights Commission or a state/territory commission (often a prerequisite to certain court claims).
• WHS reports: Notify the relevant safety regulator about health and safety concerns (including psychosocial hazards).
• General protections or unfair dismissal: If adverse action or dismissal occurs because someone raised a concern or exercised a workplace right, claims may be available under the Fair Work Act.
• Workers compensation: Where harm results in an injury, a workers’ compensation claim may be available (subject to the scheme in your state or territory).

For employers, demonstrating that you took reasonable steps - robust policies, training, prompt action and fair processes - is critical to managing risk and meeting your legal duties.

Vicarious Liability and “Reasonable Steps”

Employers can be vicariously liable for unlawful harassment by employees unless they took reasonable steps to prevent it. This is why documented training, accessible policies and consistent enforcement are so important.

When Termination Is Considered

If misconduct is serious or repeated, termination may be justified - but only after a fair process. Provide particulars, allow a response, and consider all evidence before deciding. If you need to pause duties during a serious investigation, make sure any suspension pending investigation is reasonable and consistently applied.

Key Documents That Help You Comply

Having the right documents in place makes prevention and response much easier and shows you’ve taken reasonable steps to protect workers.

• Employment Contract: sets clear conduct expectations, links to policies, and outlines lawful directions and disciplinary processes.
• Workplace Policies: includes respectful workplace (bullying, harassment and discrimination), complaints, WHS (including psychosocial hazards), social media and grievance procedures.
• Investigation Procedure: a practical playbook for triage, appointing an investigator, interviewing, findings and outcomes (internal document aligned to your policies).
• Whistleblower Policy: supports safe reporting of serious misconduct where the Corporations Act regime applies (especially relevant for larger or regulated businesses).
• Manager Guides and Training Records: templates for managers to run fair processes and documentation showing training completion (helpful evidence of “reasonable steps”).

These documents should be tailored to your business and updated as laws and best practice evolve. Keep them accessible and make sure everyone understands how to use them in real life, not just on paper.

Key Takeaways

• Bullying involves repeated, unreasonable behaviour that risks health and safety; sexual harassment can be unlawful after a single incident.
• Multiple laws overlap: WHS duties to control psychosocial risks, the Sex Discrimination Act (including Respect@Work’s positive duty), state anti‑discrimination laws, and Fair Work Commission stop‑order jurisdictions.
• Reasonable management action done reasonably isn’t bullying - train leaders on feedback, performance and fair processes.
• Strong foundations matter: clear policies, a solid Employment Contract, regular training and safe reporting channels help you meet your obligations and prevent harm.
• Act promptly and fairly on complaints: triage risk, maintain confidentiality, follow a procedurally fair investigation, and document decisions.
• Support wellbeing: treat bullying and harassment as WHS risks and align practices with your duty of care and mental health obligations.
• If disciplinary action is on the table, use fair steps such as a show cause letter and consider whether temporary suspension pending investigation is appropriate.

If you would like a consultation on workplace harassment and bullying, you can reach us at 1800 730 617 or team@sprintlaw.com.au for a free, no-obligations chat.