Can I Claim Workers' Compensation for Workplace Bullying?
You may be eligible to claim workers’ compensation when your mental health is damaged by bullying behaviours at work. This detrimental conduct can substantially negatively impact employees’ mental health, contributing to depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts.
First, get medical attention. Then read our comprehensive legal guide to workplace bullying QLD, which explains how to claim compensation and ensure your rights are protected.
Free Legal Advice for Workplace Bullying and Harassment
Our workers’ compensation lawyers offer no-obligation free legal advice to Queensland employees who suffer physical or psychological harm caused by bad behaviour. They can explain:
- If you have a valid workplace bullying claim
- Our 100% no-win, no-fee policy
- The common barriers to a successful outcome
Pay when you win and zero if you lose. It’s free to know where you stand. Call 1800 700 125
What is Bullying at Work and Can I Claim Compensation?
Workplace bullying occurs when there is repeated and unreasonable behaviour directed at an individual employee (or group) that creates a health and safety risk. This unwelcome conduct can take various forms, such as:
- Written or verbal abuse
- Humiliation and manipulation
- Exclusion
- Or even physical aggression
When bullied at work in Australia, the Fair Work Act 2009, s.789FD protects your legal rights, with physical assault considered more severe than psychological harm.
- Workplace harassment and bullying can occur among coworkers, superiors, or subordinates, creating a hostile work environment that adversely affects employees’ health, safety, and job performance.
- This negative behaviour can occur at your job site or during other activities, such as work-related events.
- You can be eligible to claim workers’ compensation benefits and lump sum compensation for employer negligence when you have a physical or psychological injury caused by workplace bullying.
- A successful claim typically relies on strong medical evidence and witness statements that support your case.
How Can I Be Bullied at Work?
You can be bullied at work face-to-face, on social media, on work chat platforms, by phone or by email. Common types of bullying include the following:
Bullying Behaviour | Examples |
|---|---|
Abusive Language | Unjustified criticism, yelling, humiliating or belittling comments, insults, and offensive language can be psychological abuse. |
Spreading Rumours: | Sharing false or negative information about an employee’s personal or professional life causes distress and damages their reputation. |
Unreasonable Work Demands | Imposing excessive workloads, unrealistic deadlines, or consistently assigning tasks beyond an employee’s abilities can lead to stress and feelings of inadequacy. |
Practical Jokes | Teasing, mocking, or playing pranks on staff creates an uncomfortable and hostile atmosphere, contributing to emotional distress. |
Cyber Bullying | Bullying in the workplace that also uses social media to harass. |
Furthermore, work-related bullying can involve supervisors, colleagues, or even contractors, with the effects being both physical and psychological, such as stress, anxiety, depression, and physical health issues.
What is Not Bullying?
Bullying activity that occurs only once is not regarded as legally actionable. However, escalated and recurrent bullying behaviour can trigger legal action.
Common situations not considered bullying include:
- A one-time incidence of physical violence or threat of violence
- Reasonable management action (see below)
- Discrimination and sexual harassment – covered by other legislation
- Work conflict: differences of opinion and disagreements are not bullying behaviour
Of course, a single instance of unreasonable behaviour could be the start of a bullying campaign, so taking early action can help avoid workplace injury litigation.
Your Right to Make a Bullying Claim
You could have the legal right to claim a workplace bullying compensation payout when undesirable behaviour causes you psychological injury or a mental illness, particularly when your employer fails to take reasonable steps to prevent harm.
In Queensland, the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) protects your right to a safe and healthy workplace. When your boss fails their duty of care, various legal remedies exist, including:
- A WorkCover claim under the workers’ compensation scheme
- Mental illness permanent impairment payout
- Psychological injury common law claim
Claiming Compensation for a Psychological Injury
In Queensland, any work-related physical or psychological harm can be eligible for a workers’ compensation claim, including workplace bullying and harassment. To find out if you can claim bullying compensation, consider the following:
- Has the bullying behaviour caused a new illness or physical injury?
- Has the unwanted behaviour worsened an existing condition?
- Is your medical disorder a direct outcome of workplace bullying?
- Have you been diagnosed with a psychological condition by a doctor?
- Do you have medical evidence that proves how workplace bullying caused or escalated your injury?
Your job must be a significant contributing factor to a new or worsened psychiatric injury that has been assessed and backed up by a medical certificate.
Our personal injury lawyers offer a free case assessment when workplace bullying has caused a new or worsened work-related injury or illness, and you have a diagnosis from a medical professional.
They can explain your legal rights and compensation entitlements. It’s free to know your rights: Call 1800 700 125
Free Claim Assessment
Taking Legal Action for Workplace Bullying
In Australia, you could take legal action when your employer has either:
- Failed to take reasonable steps to stop the unwanted behaviour
- Been ineffective in preventing the behaviour
Legal options for addressing bullying include:
- Raising a formal complaint with human resources
- You can apply to the Fair Work Commission for an order to stop bullying, but they cannot award financial compensation for the bullying itself.
- Starting alternative dispute resolution processes like mediation or arbitration
- Pursuing a claim for bullying compensation and common law damages
By seeking legal representation, people experiencing workplace bullying can hold their employers accountable for their duty-of-care failures.
You can sue for workplace bullying common law damage in Australia when your employer fails to provide a safe and healthy workplace, and you suffer harm.
Once approved, an insurance company is generally liable to fund a lump-sum payout. In Queensland, this is usually WorkCover, the principal workers’ compensation insurer for most employers.
To learn if you can sue for workplace bullying:
- An experienced work injury claim lawyer can explain if you have a case
- Informed legal advice helps you know your rights and next steps
How to Report Workplace Bullying Before a Claim
Before suing for workplace bullying, follow these specific steps to build a strong case.
Steps | Actions |
|---|---|
Document incidents | Record dates, times, and details of each occurrence including written and verbal communication. |
Collect supporting evidence | Emails, text messages, meeting notes and witness statements |
Get medical treatment | Get medical attention from a mental health professional when you have suffered psychological or physical injury. Your medical records are part of the required medical evidence that shows the impact of bullying on your mental well-being. |
Report workplace bullying | Make a work accident report with you supervisor, health and safety representative or Human Resources department, and document these discussions. This step will help establish a strong workplace bullying claim. |
Consult a compensation lawyer | A work injury lawyer can explain your rights and eligibility for workplace bullying compensation. |
What is Reasonable Management Action?
To be eligible for workplace bullying compensation, it must be shown that the treatment the employee received was not a reasonable management action.
Under section 32(5) of the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld), a psychological injury will not be considered work-related if it arose wholly or predominantly from reasonable management action.
The legislation refers to measures taken by employers or managers when managing performance, such as:
- Helping employees improve their performance
- Taking steps to remedy poor performance or behaviour
Examples of reasonable management action by employers include:
- Starting a performance improvement plan
- Implementing disciplinary measures for misconduct
- Discussions about poor work performance
- Informing an employee that their behaviour is undesirable
- Requesting workers to perform reasonable duties
- Taking steps to retain consistent work standards
Management action that is not carried out reasonably may be considered bullying.
- Actions like giving feedback, issuing warnings, or making performance-based decisions are generally lawful, but if done in a harsh or humiliating way, they may cross the line into bullying.
- It can also be considered unreasonable if an employer breaks company policies and procedures when taking disciplinary action, which leads to a psychological injury or medical condition.
4 Elements of a Bullying Workers' Compensation Claim
A successful bullying workers’ compensation claim relies on several key elements that prove your case and justify fair compensation.
Element | Behaviour |
|---|---|
1. The repeated nature of the behaviour | Workplace bullying involves persistent and ongoing mistreatment of someone. Not a one-off occurrence. |
2. It was unreasonable behaviour | Aggressive and intimidating behaviour that is beyond acceptable or reasonable in a work environment, including discriminatory treatment based on sexual orientation, gender identity and other considerations. |
3. The bad conduct caused you an injury | To successfully claim bullying compensation, you must have suffered an injury. Typically, victims have psychiatric conditions that impact their work capacity, such as: PTSD, emotional trauma, stress, depression and anxiety |
4. The claimant tried to resolve the issue | To win a case, you typically must show that you tried to resolve the issue internally by reporting the damaging behaviour to a health and safety representative, the human resources department, or higher management. |
How Much is a Workplace Bullying Compensation Payout?
How much compensation you receive in a bullying payout depends on the circumstances, including the severity of your injury and how it affects your ability to earn income.
- Payouts for bullying claims are often secured through statutory workers’ compensation claims, negligence lawsuits, or tribunals.
- The type of compensation claim will also influence how much you get in a lump sum payment.
WorkCover Claim
Once you have an approved claim under the Queensland WorkCover Scheme, you may receive weekly payments. These start at 85% of your regular earnings or the amount specified in your industrial award, whichever is greater.
Furthermore, the longer you receive WorkCover benefits, the smaller this amount becomes, ceasing at five years or when you reach the maximum payable amount.
Permanent Impairment Payout
You can request a permanent impairment assessment at the end of a Queensland workers’ compensation claim, and your weekly payments cease. A whole-person impairment rating determines the value of a lump-sum payment as a final settlement.
If approved, you will receive a lump-sum settlement offer calculated using the Queensland impairment rating payout table.
As of January 1, 2025, an injured Queensland worker is entitled to $4,222.58 for each 1% of the DPI score, with a maximum payable amount of $422,295.
According to Safe Work Australia, the average compensation payment for a psychological injury claim is $23,600.
Common Law Claim for Lump Sum Compensation
- A common law claim payout for workplace bullying can be a complex and lengthy process. However, it generally results in a higher lump-sum payout because it considers more factors when calculating damages.
- To succeed, you must prove your employer’s breach of duty or negligence was the cause of your harm. In others, they breached work health and safety laws by failing to stop bullying and harassment.
According to WorkCover Queensland’s published statistics, the average common law claim payout is approximately $168,000, with psychiatric injury values ranging from $100,000 to $200,000.
Compensation for severe bullying can reach settlements from $500,000 to over $1 million.
What Damages Can I Recover from a Successful Claim?
Damages from a successful common law claim are typically higher than those using lump-sum permanent impairment ratings. That’s because a common law case considers “heads of damages,” which include both economic and non-economic damages.
Type of Damages | What is Covers |
|---|---|
Economic Damages | Covers financial losses incurred as a result of the bullying, including:
lost income and super, medical expenses, treatment-related travel costs, other out-of-pocket expenses. |
Non-Economic Damages | General damages compensate for the emotional and psychological harm caused by the negative behaviour, including pain and suffering compensation, emotional trauma, loss of enjoyment of life. |
Successful Bullying Compensation Claim Case Studies
Record High Payout in the Federal Court for Bullied Worker
The Australian Federal Court ordered an employer to pay $2.8 million in damages to a worker bullied by the company CEO. She suffered increasingly intense aggressive and intimidating behaviour that ruined her daily life.
The worker was a longtime senior employee with an increasingly difficult working relationship with the incoming CEO, who had an overbearing micromanagement style. The $2.8 million settlement was calculated based on:
- $214,250 for pain and suffering compensation
- $1,169,048 for past economic loss
- $869,745 for future economic loss
- $78,980 in interest
- $24,233 for breach of contract damages
- $160,000 in civil penalties
- $300,000 in costs
The final amount was reduced for workers’ compensation payments already received by the employee.
Employee Sues Cairns Local Council for Psychological Injury
Queensland Court Judgements: Ackers V Cairns Regional Council
Ackers had a pre-existing mild depressive disorder (dysthymia). A series of events similar to bullying escalated his depressive condition.
The court found that the council had a duty of care because his psychiatric injury was reasonably foreseeable, and they breached their duty. Total damages awarded were $1,099,132.69, made up of:
- General damages (for ISV 30) $53,000
- Past economic loss (incl. super) $456,433
- Interest on past economic loss $3,925
- Past special damages (medical etc.) $164,000
- Interest on past special damages $2,257
- Wilson v McLeay damages $1,500
- Future loss of earnings (incl. super) $527,088
- Future special damages $67,845
- Less WorkCover payments already received -$176,915
The court found Ackers would not make a full recovery but expected some moderate improvement post-litigation, meaning he retained a residual earning capacity of roughly $200/week in unskilled part-time work.
Legal Options for Bullying Workers' Compensation Claims
Queensland’s legal system makes it challenging to successfully claim compensation for workplace bullying or harassment. However, you have the right to seek legal advice for psychological or physical harm, including your eligibility for a lump sum compensation payout.
Splatt Lawyers’ team of workers’ compensation lawyers helps bullied Queensland workers:
- Understand their legal rights
- Their eligibility for compensation
- And legal advice on an injury damages claim against an employer for negligence
All our bullying legal services come with 100% no-win, no-fee legal funding. You pay when you win and zero if you lose, so you have no financial risk for your case. Get free legal advice at 1800 700 125
WorkCover Bullying Compensation Lawyers Near Me
Workplace Bullying Claim FAQs
How can I stop bullying in the workplace?
Here are some effective strategies to stop bullying in the workplace:
- Implement Clear Policies: Employers should establish and communicate clear anti-bullying policies that define unacceptable behaviours, outline reporting procedures, and specify consequences for bullying.
- Training and Awareness: Conduct regular training sessions for all staff, including management, to raise awareness about workplace bullying, its effects, and how to prevent it.
- Encourage Reporting: Give employees safe and private ways to report bullying without worrying about getting in trouble.
- Support Affected Employees: Provide access to counselling or employee assistance programs to help those impacted by bullying recover and feel supported.
- Promote a Positive Culture: Foster an inclusive, respectful workplace where diversity is valued and employees feel empowered to speak up.
- Encourage a Positive Culture: Create a workplace culture that is welcoming and respectful, values diversity, and makes employees feel free to speak up.
Who funds a workplace bullying compensation payout?
An approved bullying payout is funded by the employer’s insurer, which is usually WorkCover Queensland.
What are the impacts of bullying and harassment on mental health?
Statistics from Safe Work Australia show that about 9.4% to 9.7% of employees report experiencing bullying in the workplace within any six-month period.
To take legal action, bullying must result in a formal diagnosis from a doctor for a condition such as depression, anxiety, or PTSD. Common impacts include:
- Low self-esteem
- Withdrawal from others
- Mood swings
- Distrust of other people
- Anxiety and depression
Thankfully, medical treatment can assist with recovery.
What is the definition of workplace bullying and harassment?
In Queensland, bullying involves repeated and unreasonable behaviour directed at a worker or group of workers that creates a risk to health and safety.
How do I claim workplace bullying compensation?
- To succeed in a claim for psychological injury caused by bullying or harassment, you must show that the injury is work-related and get a medical certificate from a doctor, psychologist, or psychiatrist.
- You also need to submit a work incident report to your HR department.
- Next, lodge a workers’ compensation claim by lodging a claim form through your employer or the relevant state authority within the required time limits.
- Once a WorkCover claim for workplace bullying is accepted, you may be entitled to receive compensation for your treatment costs.
- In Queensland, if a WorkCover claim is rejected, you can seek legal advice to assess other options or avenues for review, as strict timeframes apply after receiving a decision.
How can an employment lawyer help with bullying at work?
Workers’ compensation lawyers can advise on psychological injury claims for workplace harassment and bullying. But employment lawyers can advise on the following:
- Sexual harassment
- Workplace harassment
- Discrimination
- Bullying and adverse action