Complete Guide to Workplace Bullying Requirements

Before you can act on workplace bullying, it helps to know exactly what the law actually requires — what has to be proven, who's covered, and what an employer is legally obligated to do. Here's the framework as it applies in Australia.

The Legal Requirements to Meet the Definition of Bullying

Under the Fair Work system, workplace bullying requires three things to be present together: repeated unreasonable behaviour (not a single isolated incident, unless it's serious enough alone), behaviour that a reasonable person would consider unreasonable in the circumstances, and a resulting risk to health and safety. All three elements generally need to be met — one bad meeting doesn't automatically qualify, but a pattern of belittling comments, exclusion, or unfair targeting over weeks or months typically does. Reasonable management action carried out in a reasonable way — fair feedback, a properly run performance process, legitimate disciplinary action — is specifically excluded from the definition, even if it's unwelcome to receive.

Requirements to Apply for a Fair Work Commission Stop-Bullying Order

Related: Workplace Bullying - Essential Steps for Documentation and Reporting.

To apply, you generally need to be a worker as defined under the Fair Work Act — this covers employees but can also extend to contractors, apprentices, and volunteers in some circumstances — and you need to be currently employed at the workplace where the bullying is occurring, since the Commission's orders are about stopping ongoing behaviour rather than compensating for past harm. The application itself requires specific details: the nature of the alleged bullying, dates and descriptions of incidents, and evidence supporting the pattern. This is where consistent documentation becomes essential rather than optional — applications built on vague recollection are far weaker than ones built on a dated, detailed log, which is exactly why tools like Bully Log exist, to keep that record as events happen rather than reconstructed later.

What Employers Are Legally Required to Do

Employers have a legal duty under work health and safety laws to eliminate or minimise psychosocial risks, which explicitly includes the risk created by bullying. In practice, this generally means having a bullying or grievance policy, providing a way for workers to report concerns, responding to reports in a reasonable timeframe, and taking action proportionate to what's found. Failing to act on a reported risk isn't just poor management — it can constitute a breach of the employer's safety obligations, which is a separate legal exposure from the bullying itself.

Requirements Around Timeframes

See also: Workplace Bullying - Tips and Strategies to Stay Safe.

There's no fixed legal deadline for reporting bullying internally, but delay works against you practically — memories fade, patterns become harder to demonstrate, and employers may question why nothing was raised earlier. For a Fair Work Commission application, the key requirement is that the bullying be current or ongoing, since the Commission's remedy is a forward-looking order to stop the behaviour, not compensation for what's already occurred. If the bullying has already stopped — for example, because you've since changed teams or left the role — a stop-bullying order generally isn't the right avenue, and other options like a general protections claim or a WHS complaint may be more relevant depending on your circumstances.

Requirements for Evidence That Will Actually Be Considered

Whether you're pursuing an internal complaint, a WHS report, or a Commission application, the evidence that carries weight is specific and dated: incident-by-incident records with dates, times, witnesses, and direct quotes wherever possible, plus supporting material like emails, messages, and medical records if your health has been affected. General statements like "the whole team knows he's difficult" carry far less weight than five specific, dated, witnessed examples. This is exactly the standard worth building your documentation habits around from the outset, rather than trying to meet it retroactively once a formal process is already underway.

What This Means in Practice

Meeting the legal requirements for a bullying complaint or Commission application isn't about legal knowledge so much as disciplined, consistent documentation from the point something first feels wrong. The law is on the side of workers who can show a clear pattern with real evidence behind it — the requirement is simply that the evidence exists and is organised. This article provides general information, not legal advice; for guidance on your specific circumstances, contact your union, the Fair Work Ombudsman, or an employment lawyer before making a formal application.