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The race without a finishing line: legislative means for confronting bullying in the A ustralian workplace
Author(s) -
Hanley Glennis M,
O'Rourke Anne
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
asia pacific journal of human resources
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.825
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1744-7941
pISSN - 1038-4111
DOI - 10.1111/1744-7941.12093
Subject(s) - legislation , workplace bullying , legislature , workplace violence , jurisdiction , race (biology) , public relations , psychosocial , occupational safety and health , political science , psychology , criminology , law , business , human factors and ergonomics , sociology , social psychology , poison control , medicine , environmental health , psychiatry , gender studies
In this paper we investigate the evolution of occupational health and safety ( OHS ) legislation aimed at harnessing workplace bullying. We begin with a brief discussion of workplace safety and literature covering workplace bullying. Then we present an overview of the development of A ustralian OHS legislation in recognising the influence of psychosocial hazards such as bullying. Following this we examine the F air W ork C ommission's anti‐bullying jurisdiction which commenced on 1 J anuary 2014. We argue that while the new anti‐bullying laws are a welcome response to the problem of workplace bullying, they offer a minimalist rather than a comprehensive remedy to the problem. We conclude that the only way to provide an adequate response is to create stand‐alone legislation that recognises bullying as a criminal offence with remedies sufficiently castigatory to act as a deterrent to would‐be workplace bullies and prompt proactive workplace cultural change.