It's Time for Real Change...
How great would it be if you could attend work every day in an environment that is positive, friendly, supportive, safe, and free of bullying, harassment, victimisation and discrimination? Of course, all public servants would thrive in such an environment.
Unfortunately, however, the Australian Public Service Commission's official statistics report that around 17% of Australian Public Service (APS) employees are bullied or harassed in their workplaces each year. Yet, other studies and anecdotal evidence indicate that the incidence of workplace bullying, harassment, victimisation and discrimination in the APS can be much higher, reaching well over 30% in some APS agencies. With around 165,000 people employed in the APS, this makes for a huge number of sufferers.
The APS presents a picture to the public that it is adequately dealing with the issue, but the opposite seems to be true. Moreover, it appears to be the trend in the APS that employees who complain about bullying, harassment, victimisation or discrimination can be further victimised for standing up for their workplace and human rights. The worst form of victimisation is compulsory referrals of complainants to psychiatric examinations under the Public Service Regulations 1999 in an attempt to undermine complainants' mental stability and cause further distress.
It is well-established in the literature that bullying, harassment, victimisation and discrimination not only detrimentally affect the health and well-being of targeted individuals, they can also detrimentally affect the productivity and quality of work produced by those targeted individuals, witnesses and perpetrators. Other substantial employer costs include counselling program costs, turnover costs, corporate knowledge loss, reputational damage, opportunity costs, and compensation and litigation costs.
The purpose of this website is an innovative one - to try to create a balance of power between targets and perpetrators/APS agencies by providing information on what targets can really expect from APS agencies if they pluck up the courage to make complaints about mistreatment and providing information on how targets can try to protect their interests.
With the APS being the largest employer in the country, it should be leading the way in understanding, preventing and effectively addressing bullying, harassment, victimisation and discrimination in its workplaces. Unfortunately, however, it is generally failing dismally. Not only is this a blight against the basic human right to dignity, it is also a grave failing in respect of democratic notions. With the incomes of APS employees being funded by tax payers, the public wants to be sure that their tax dollars are not going to waste. Since studies have shown that workplace bullying, harassment, victimisation and discrimination negatively affects employee productivity, the upshot is that tax payers are cheated of the efficient use of their tax dollars, and the production of high-quality public policy and service delivery. Furthermore, as a matter of ethics, the great majority of tax payers would feel very uneasy with the idea of their tax dollars being used to fund the wages of wrongdoers. Thus, there is a clear obligation on the APS to effectively address workplace bullying, harassment, victimisation and discrimination in the interest of accountability to the Australian public.
Unfortunately, however, the Australian Public Service Commission's official statistics report that around 17% of Australian Public Service (APS) employees are bullied or harassed in their workplaces each year. Yet, other studies and anecdotal evidence indicate that the incidence of workplace bullying, harassment, victimisation and discrimination in the APS can be much higher, reaching well over 30% in some APS agencies. With around 165,000 people employed in the APS, this makes for a huge number of sufferers.
The APS presents a picture to the public that it is adequately dealing with the issue, but the opposite seems to be true. Moreover, it appears to be the trend in the APS that employees who complain about bullying, harassment, victimisation or discrimination can be further victimised for standing up for their workplace and human rights. The worst form of victimisation is compulsory referrals of complainants to psychiatric examinations under the Public Service Regulations 1999 in an attempt to undermine complainants' mental stability and cause further distress.
It is well-established in the literature that bullying, harassment, victimisation and discrimination not only detrimentally affect the health and well-being of targeted individuals, they can also detrimentally affect the productivity and quality of work produced by those targeted individuals, witnesses and perpetrators. Other substantial employer costs include counselling program costs, turnover costs, corporate knowledge loss, reputational damage, opportunity costs, and compensation and litigation costs.
The purpose of this website is an innovative one - to try to create a balance of power between targets and perpetrators/APS agencies by providing information on what targets can really expect from APS agencies if they pluck up the courage to make complaints about mistreatment and providing information on how targets can try to protect their interests.
With the APS being the largest employer in the country, it should be leading the way in understanding, preventing and effectively addressing bullying, harassment, victimisation and discrimination in its workplaces. Unfortunately, however, it is generally failing dismally. Not only is this a blight against the basic human right to dignity, it is also a grave failing in respect of democratic notions. With the incomes of APS employees being funded by tax payers, the public wants to be sure that their tax dollars are not going to waste. Since studies have shown that workplace bullying, harassment, victimisation and discrimination negatively affects employee productivity, the upshot is that tax payers are cheated of the efficient use of their tax dollars, and the production of high-quality public policy and service delivery. Furthermore, as a matter of ethics, the great majority of tax payers would feel very uneasy with the idea of their tax dollars being used to fund the wages of wrongdoers. Thus, there is a clear obligation on the APS to effectively address workplace bullying, harassment, victimisation and discrimination in the interest of accountability to the Australian public.