ways2work - Parents and carers
Occupational health and safety
General Rules about Workplace Safety
In some cases, workers may be put under pressure at work because of their parental, family or carer responsibilities. This may affect their health and safety. Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic), employers must provide and maintain a safe workplace for all workers (as well as certain other people involved with a workplace). Employees and others in the workplace must also take care of their own health and safety and that of others in the workplace. The Act contains various provisions, including procedures for dealing with health and safety issues in agreed ways, for work to cease if there is an immediate threat to health and safety, for inspectors to attend and inspect the workplace if there is a problem and for inspectors to take action to remedy the problem. There is also protection for those, (including job applicants) who consider that they have been victimised for exercising their rights under the Act.
Bullying
Bullying has been defined as repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed towards an employee or group of employees, that creates a risk to health and safety. ‘Unreasonable behaviour’ means behaviour that a reasonable person, having regard to all the circumstances, would expect to victimise, humiliate, undermine or threaten another person. Workers with parental, family or carer responsibilities may experience bullying behaviour because of those responsibilities. They would then have rights, not only under anti-discrimination laws, but also under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic).
Examples of bullying include verbal and/or physical abuse; excluding or isolating behaviour; psychological harassment; intimidation; assigning meaningless tasks unrelated to the job; giving employees impossible assignments; deliberately changing work rosters to inconvenience particular employees; deliberately withholding information that is vital for effective work performance and so on. Bullying is recognised as a threat to health and safety at work and therefore is a breach of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic).
If you consider that you may have been bullied, you can speak to your union or WorkSafe about making a complaint. For more information, go to Business Victoria or WorkSafe.
In some cases, bullying may also involve Discrimination or Sexual harassment. For information on these matters, see the sections on discrimination and sexual harassment.
WorkCover Rights
A claim may be made under the Accident Compensation Act 1985 (Vic) for compensation for physical or mental injury arising out of or in the course of employment where the employment is a significant contributing factor. This would include injury arising from workplace misbehaviour, such as bullying, discrimination or sexual harassment. For more information, speak to your union or go to the WorkSafe website.
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