What to expect from WorkSafe
Assessment
Based on the information you provide when you contact us, a WorkSafe advisor will assess your complaint to determine if the matter involves repeated, unreasonable behaviour by another person or people at work, and whether this behaviour creates a health and safety risk.
Referrals
If the nature of your complaint falls outside WorkSafe’s authority, we may recommend you speak to another agency. For example, the Fair Work Ombudsman handles matters related to your rights at work such as pay and conditions and Fair Work Australia considers matters of unlawful termination and unfair dismissal.
Further investigation
You will be asked what action you have already taken to stop the situation, such as requesting the behaviour to cease and if you have followed your company’s existing policies and procedures, if possible.
The advisor will discuss the options available to manage your particular circumstances, including information on how you might self-manage the situation.
We may also ask you to put your allegation in writing. Things we’ll ask include:
- Have you spoken to any other organisations or agencies about this matter?
- Have you informed anyone in the workplace about your allegation? If so, who did you inform and what action was taken?
- What impact has the behaviour had on your health and safety?
- Specific details of the bullying incidents including date and time, location, the behaviours you were exposed to, the name of the person(s) you are making the allegation against and your relationship to them, names of witnesses and their contact details, and copies of any supporting materials.
The advisor may refer the matter for further action, which can include handing the matter over to a WorkSafe inspector. However, where you wish to remain anonymous to us or unidentified to your employer, the extent of action that an inspector can take will be limited.
WorkSafe collects and handles personal and health information in accordance with its Privacy Policy, the Information Privacy Act 2000 and Health Records Act 2001.
More information about privacy can be located here including WorkSafe’s Privacy Policy.
Workplace visit
If WorkSafe decides that a workplace visit is necessary, a WorkSafe inspector will come to your workplace to assess two things. Firstly, the steps taken by your employer to deal with your complaint of bullying (in circumstances where the employer is aware of your allegation) and secondly, what measures your employer has in place to eliminate or reduce the risks of workplace bullying.
During their visit, the WorkSafe inspector can request the production of documents such as workplace policies and procedures, emails, training and induction records and incident or injury reports.
The WorkSafe inspector may also talk to other people at your workplace, such as your employer, co-workers and the person that the allegation is being made against.
If the WorkSafe inspector believes that a person is not meeting their legal duty to prevent or respond to workplace bullying, the WorkSafe inspector may issue an improvement notice requiring your employer to remedy these concerns within a specified timeframe.
In most cases, a visit by WorkSafe inspectors will resolve concerns of bullying in the workplace. However, where there is evidence that an offence under the OHS Act may have been committed and / or an employer has failed to address the issues raised by WorkSafe during the visit, WorkSafe may conduct an investigation into the matter.
In accordance with WorkSafe's General Prosecution Guidelines, WorkSafe may commence a prosecution if the investigation reveals evidence to prove that offences under the OHS Act have been committed. WorkSafe will commence a prosecution only in circumstances that meet the criteria in its General Prosecution Guidelines and that means there must be a reasonable prospect of conviction for offences under the OHS Act and it must also be in the public interest to commence a prosecution.
WorkSafe's General Prosecution Guidelines can be located on the WorkSafe website.
